Jon Peterson: Baseball, Secrets, and Whatever Else
by Porter-Fuzz1218
Summary: I'm the only child of two big technological tycoons. I'm secretly a genius and I love to play baseball. Things will follow me here to Jasper that I never intended, secrets that I tried to cover up will be uncovered. I learn secrets about my own family. I was always a loner, but I met a couple of kids my age. There is one kid though that confuses me, his name: Phil Shade.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Solitude and Sports

I would like to think that before all of this that I was a happy teenager, but in reality I wasn't. I was homeschooled my entire life and therefore I actually skipped a grade or two, I'm not entirely sure. My name is Jon Peterson, the only child of two big technology tycoons. As a result I didn't have any real friends that liked me for who I was, just my parents wealth. I was a week away from my sixteenth birthday and wanted to play baseball for the local high school. I had to attend a single class in order to be eligible for sports, so I had too attend a single class. I chose a history class. It was an eleventh grade class, but I was still taking it anyway, due to my homeschooling.

School didn't start for another week and the baseball season here went for half the school year because of the Nevada weather. I was reflecting on my past "school year" up in my room of my family's mansion, when my mother knocked on the door. "Come in," I said in my semi deep voice.

My bedroom door opened and a woman that was five foot seven inches, in shape, in her late thirties, dark brown hair, and piercing blue eyes walked in. My mother was wearing her favorite navy blue dress with golden heels, and her pearl necklace. "I'm just reminding you, honey, that your father and I are going to the business' dinner party," she said in her kind, caring voice. "Are you sure that you don't want to come along?"

I smiled at my mom and said, "I'm sure, mom. I usually get bored at those things anyway. I can't understand a word that they usually say to me anyway."

"Andrè will have dinner prepped for you whenever you are ready to eat."

"Alright, thanks mom." I said with a wave of my hand as she left my room. Andrè was our butler. I walked over to a mirror and looked at my reflection. I looked a lot like my father. People told me that a lot, that I was a spitting image of the old man. I was six foot two, two hundred pounds of muscle, broad shoulders. I had a defined jaw line, almond shaped green eyes, short light brown hair, and my most distinctive feature, the scar on my chest from having been in a dirt biking accident a couple of years back. The high school that I would be attending for one class was called Jasper High, but I lived roughly ten miles away from the town. I walked out of my room and into my bathroom, I wanted to get myself a job and pay for my own things, but that's a topic for another time. I got into the shower and took fifteen minutes before I came out and shaved. I put on a clean pair of underwear, picked up the clothes that I had discarded on the bathroom floor, and then walked out of the bathroom and back into my room. I put on a pair of black basketball shorts. The leggings came down past my knees, but they were comfortable. I was pretty well built; I had a six-pack and defined muscles on my arms and legs. Girls stared at me when I worked out in public, it was kind of disturbing sometimes because it was just unrelenting staring. I put on a blue sleeveless tee and sat down on my bed and pulled out from underneath my bed my black baseball bat that had a silver handle. In high school baseball we were allowed to use aluminum bats. With a sigh, I put on a pair of socks and went to my closet. I took out a bucket full of about a hundred baseballs and then walked out of my room. I walked down the main flight of stairs. If you have ever seen the movie Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio, you know what my staircase looked like. I made a right turn and went into a hallway that led to the West wing of the mansion. The West wing contained a game room, an indoor pool, the kitchen, and my own private study. I found my way to the kitchen and saw the family butler Andrè. His real name wasn't really Andrè, it was Andrew, he had changed his name to make it more exotic when he had been my age. "I'm going out to the field to practice." I told him.

Andrè turned around, he was in his mid fifties, five foot eleven inches, gray hair, stormy blue eyes, and bushy eyebrows. He always wore a black tux with a white shirt, black vest, and black bow tie. "Alright, Master Peterson. When would you like your dinner?" he asked me in his Scottish accent.

I smiled at him and answered, "I'll take care of myself tonight, Andrè, why don't you take the rest of the night to relax?"

Andrè chuckled and looked at me with amusement in his eyes. "So you plan to follow through with your little plan then?"

"I want to know what it's like to work," I answered. "There's a job opening at a place called the KO Burger, I'm going to see if I can get a job there."

"Well I wish ye all the luck in the world, laddy." Andrè said clasping me on my shoulder. He looked me right in the eye and asked, "You'll be right out in our field right?"

"Yes, I will." My parents in their infinite wisdom saw fit to create me my own baseball field out on our property. I had to take a four wheeler to get there because we had over four thousand acres of land to ourselves out here, and the baseball diamond that they had created was on the outer half of the land my family owned. I walked to the back door and put on my cleats. Once I had them on, I went outside and right to the four-wheeler. I placed the bucket of baseballs on top of the rack on the back of the wheeler and put a lid on top of the bucket so they wouldn't spill. I secured the bucket to the rack and then slid my bat next to it. I mounted the wheeler and then started it. I headed to the wheeler to get some batting practice in before it got dark out.

An hour and a half passed before I got the bucket and my bat back onto the four-wheeler and headed back towards the mansion. I started going back towards the house and every time I saw it, I still couldn't believe that I lived here. It was a three-story mansion, two football fields long. It had white siding and it almost resembled the White House's front in the back. The way that the columns supported the second story balcony just was breathtaking. Underneath the balcony was a pool that was twelve feet deep, a hundred feet long, and fifty feet across. Not to mention that we had a storage shack built by the pool for all or the pool stuff. I put the four-wheeler back and made myself a bologna sandwich. Next week school and baseball started. I wasn't really excited because there would always be those gold diggers being nice to me because I'm the rich kid. I turned sixteen in a week as well, so I was hopefully going to be getting my first car pretty soon. I don't know what kind of car I wanted, I just wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing. I went back to my bedroom and put my baseball stuff away for the night. I had a feeling that this baseball season was going to be an eventful one, and I was sure that I was going to have a good year. Maybe if I was lucky enough, I would even be starting varsity catcher.

**One Week Later**

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock blaring in my ears. I tiredly reached out and shut the alarm off. I got out of bed and stood up. I stretched for a bit to get the sleepiness out of my system and just because it was a habit of mine. I looked at the time and saw that it was 5:50 am. I tiredly stumbled to my dresser and took out a clean pair of socks, underwear, black basketball shorts, and my grandfather's dog tags. I held the dog tags in my hand for a couple of moments, debating whether or not to wear them to tryouts. With a shrug, I placed them on top of my dresser and headed to the bathroom. I got into the shower and got ready for the school day. I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off after fifteen minutes. I put on deodorant and when I was satisfied with my appearance, I exited the bathroom and headed to my room. I went to my dresser and grabbed the dog tags. I put them around my neck and opened my dresser again and took out a red tee shirt. I put it on, grabbed my watch and put that on my right wrist. I exited my room and headed downstairs towards the dining room. I smelled morning oatmeal, steak, omelets, and fruit. My mouth watered in anticipation for breakfast and I entered seeing my father reading the morning newspaper. I sat down across from him and he set down the paper. My father looked exactly like I did, except older, had wrinkles, grey in his hair and beard, and always had permanent crease lines around his mouth like he's on the verge of either smiling and telling a joke, or frowning in concentration or disappointment. "Good morning, Jon," my dad greeted me. "Ready for school?"

"I guess, I just want to play baseball." I answered with a shrug. My father smiled knowingly and nodded.

"You should go ahead and eat, I'll let you drive to school today."

I looked at my dad in surprise and asked in disbelief, "You can't be serious?"

My dad chuckled and grinned like a schoolboy. "I am serious, Jon. Your drivers test is during second hour of the school day, is it not?"

"It is."

"I want you to get familiar with the car, because I took the morning off so that you could use the car for the test."

"Thanks dad!" I still couldn't believe that my dad would let me drive the two hundred thousand dollar car to school and use it for the test.

"No problem son, eat breakfast and get ready to go."

I nodded and chose an omelet from the stack and put it on my plate. I put salt and pepper on the omelet and had a bowl of oatmeal on the side. I ate the omelet first and then ate the oatmeal. I finished eating and then filled a glass with apple juice and drank it. My dad stood up and I looked up from the table. He was wearing a grey suit with a black dress shirt and a long black necktie. "Ready?" he asked me.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I replied excitedly.

"That's my boy," my dad said. "Come on, let's go."

"Alright, I'm coming." I said. I stood up and followed my dad out of the dining room and to the main hall. The main hall was basically the main entrance to the mansion. I slipped on a pair of shoes and my dad handed me the car keys.

"What time does your class start?" he asked me.

"Not until after lunch." I answered.

"So what will you do for most of the time?" My dad asked as we walked outside towards a red Audi R8 GT Spyder.

"I'll most likely walk around town, go to the library and read, or sit outside." I replied.

"As long as you're in class on time."

"I've never been late in my life." I said with a lopsided smile.

My dad and I both chuckled at that and we got inside the car. "In that case, just go to the DMV." he said.

"Alright." I said. There wasn't a point in arguing. If I got there early enough, I'd be able to take my test earlier than it had been scheduled for.

_Four Hours Later_

I still couldn't believe that I had passed my drivers text in my dads Audi! I was still a bit excited when I arrived in class for the day. The teacher took attendance and when she reached my name, her eyes got wide. "Students, we have a new student here this year." she said. I cringed inwardly as the kids looked around and then their gaze fell on me. "Jon Peterson, would you care to introduce yourself?"

I sighed and looked up at the teacher and answered, "I do care actually, thank you for asking. I don't see the point in introducing myself when you've already done it."

The kids in the class chuckled and the teacher narrowed her eyes at me. She was in her mid forties, average height, a bit obese if I would say so, and had her red hair in a bun. "Then you can hopefully answer the question from the summer reading?" she asked.

I frowned, a summer reading? Was I in the wrong class? "Yes." I answered anyway.

"Alright then, what empire has had the greatest influence over America?" the teacher asked.

"If you mean an empire that is long gone, there's a mixture of them. We emulated the Roman Empire, British Empire, Ancient Egyptian Empire, not to mention we followed the main components of the Greek civilization, mainly that of Athens and her city. If you were talking about an empire that is still around today, then I'd say there is none." I answered. There was a stunned silence that filled the room and I leaned back into my chair and looked at the teacher waiting for a reply.

"Correct, Mr. Peterson." The teacher said grudgingly. I could already tell that she and I were going to get along swell this year.

The class ended and I walked out of the classroom and headed for the main office so that I could sign myself out. I was almost there when I heard my name being called. I stopped and turned around. A kid with raven colored hair, that was a tad messy, jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and a tee shirt. "Can I help you?" I asked once the teen was within arm distance.

"Yeah, you're the new kid right?" he asked. I nodded my answer. He held out his right hand and I saw my wallet. "You left this back in class."

"Thanks." I said accepting my wallet.

"I'm Jack, Jack Darby."

"Jon, Jon Peterson." We shook hands and I could tell that he had something else he wanted to ask me. "Is there something that you want to ask me?"

"I know that you must get this a lot, but are you the son of the big technological tycoons?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, the only child. It gets kind of old after awhile. I haven't had a real friend in ages. You don't seem like any of the gold diggers I've met in the past, maybe we could hang out sometime. You could show me around Jasper."

"This is Jasper, nothing really to see." Jack said. We both chuckled and I thanked him again for bringing me my wallet. "No problem, my mom raised me to be responsible."

"I'll see you around." I said as I waved and walked away. I went into the main office and signed myself out of the building. I sat on the stairs and saw a sick looking motorcycle in the parking lot. It was blue with pink fenders. I couldn't tell what make it was, but it sure was nice. I stood up and walked towards the bike and inspected it. I whistled appreciatively and shook my head. "Man the person who owns this bike is really lucky." I muttered. I walked away and stuck my hands in my pockets as I headed towards the baseball fields. My dad had dropped off my bat and some balls for me. It would take me about five minutes to get there, but once I did, I'd make the most out of it. I arrived at the field and saw the bucket of balls and my bat leaning against the fence behind home plate. I sat down and removed my sneakers and put on cleats. I stood up and walked to the pitchers mound and pulled out a pitching machine out of my backpack. I assembled it and attached a small generator I had brought with to it so that I could have power. Satisfied with the set up, I went to where the bucket of baseballs was and brought them back to the mound. I placed ten balls in a slide that would shoot fastballs over the plate for me when I needed it to. I went back to home plate and took my batting stance and said, "Shoot." The launcher took a fastball and launched it over home plate and I swung the bat. There was the sound of aluminum hitting rubber and it was like music to my ears. The ball went sailing and I settled back into my batting stance. "Shoot." Another ball sailed towards home plate and I swung the bat. It connected with the ball and it went sailing towards center field. I reset once again and repeated the process. This time I took the ball to the opposite field and it sailed over the fence. I finished the rest of the baseballs and set down my bat. I was about to go towards the mound when I heard a male voice ask me, "Can you hit grounders or are you just a big power hitter?"

I turned towards the sound of the voice and saw a man in his mid thirties with a goatee and a buzz cut. His hair was black, and so was his goatee but it also had a mixture of red in the whiskers. "I can hit grounders," I answered. "I just like seeing if I can hit the long ball."

"From what I've seen, you hit seven homers and the other three balls bounced off the fence." the man said.

I nodded. "Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm the coach of the high school baseball team. I was told that a student was seen walking to the baseball field and that intrigued me." the man said.

"I only have one class period at the high school, that's what makes me eligible for sports if I played." I replied.

"What's your name?"

"Jon Peterson." I answered uneasily.

"That makes more sense then. I went to school with your father. I'm Coach Rodriguez."

"You're my godfather?" I asked in surprise. I knew who my godfather was, I had never actually met him in person before.

Coach Rodriguez chuckled kindly and nodded. "Yeah, that'd be me." he said. He looked at me again more closely and nodded. "What position do you play?"

"Catcher and Center Field." I answered.

"Well we need a Center Fielder, from what I've seen you're on the team."

I was shocked, my jaw dropped and I looked at the coach in disbelief. "Aren't there tryouts?" I asked.

"Usually there are, but your father also has sent over game film from when you had lived in Montana. You were on a Little League World Series championship team." Coach Rodriguez said.

"Yeah, but isn't it unfair to the other players?"

"We didn't have an Senior players last year, so the roster is basically set. The kid that we had playing Center Field transferred schools."

"Oh, so when does practice start?" I asked.

"Tomorrow at about three thirty here."

"I'll see you tomorrow then, Coach." I said respectively.

"Yes, you will." he turned to walk off the field and stopped and turned back to face me. "What grade are you in?"

I shrugged, "Technically since I've been homeschooled, I'm not in a grade. I just turned sixteen today though, so put me as a Sophomore on the roster."

"Will do."

A couple of hours later, Andrè came and picked me up from the baseball field. He drove us back home and I saw Jack on a motorcycle with someone, but I wasn't one hundred percent sure. We got back to the mansion and I went right to my room and turned on the TV and flipped the channel right to ESPN for SportsCenter. It was one of the few shows that I would watch. Tomorrow I started baseball practice, and Andrè had said on the way back home that I could drive his car into town tomorrow since he didn't have to be anywhere. Tomorrow was a Saturday, but I was excited for the day anyway. I didn't know what the practice would bring, but I was definitely looking forward to it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Practice Makes Perfect

It was around noon on Saturday and a beautiful day. I was sitting outside on the second story balcony reading Sports Illustrated when Andrè joined me. I looked up from the article I was reading and smiled at him. "What can I help you with?" I asked.

"Nothing, Master Peterson," Andrè said smiling as well. "I just came up here to enjoy the weather."

"Uh-huh, why are you really up here?"

"Did ya make the team?" Andrè asked leaning towards me and looking at me earnestly.

I chuckled and asked him, "What do you think?"

"It was that bad, huh?" Andrè mused. "I thought you were decent at baseball." We both laughed and Andrè continued, "All jokes aside, I'm proud of you laddy. You're the closest thing that I have to a son."

"I learned from the best." I said, touched by what Andrè had just said.

"I taught you how to throw and how to hit, that's about it." Andrè said modestly.

"And that was enough."

"What time's your practice at?"

"Three thirty."

"It's a quarter to one, didn't you want a job at the KO Burger?"

"I never picked up an application."

"I talked to the owner, he said he'd hire you. Your parents are happy that you want a job, so if you stop in and ask for the owner, say your name and that I sent you." Andrè said looking at me.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Andrè said with a shrug. "It's my job to help you out."

"When should I leave?"

"Now." Andrè said with a smile as he tossed me his keys. I caught them and smiled at him.

"Thank you." I said.

"You might as well get going."

I nodded and set my magazine down. I stood up and Andrè stood up as well. We embraced and I went back inside to grab my wallet, glove, and bat. I ran into my room and grabbed my things. I exited my room, headed down the stairs, and grabbed my cleats from where they sat, put on my shoes, and went to Andrè's car. He owned a black 1968 Chevy Camaro. I put my things in the trunk and climbed in. The inside was relatively newer, it had a new stereo system where I could plug my iPod into it and listen to my music. I started the engine, buckled up, and plugged in my iPod. I selected Shinedown and hit play. I switched gears and drove out of the driveway. I felt free for once and I couldn't help but smile as I drove onto the highway and headed towards town. I pulled into town and into the parking lot of the KO Burger. I parked the car and shut the engine off. I unbuckled my seatbelt and exited the car. I entered the restaurant and walked towards the counter. "Can I help you?" a woman said in a bored voice.

"I'm looking for the manager." I said.

"That would be me." a man said as he stepped out of the kitchen area. He was wearing an apron and had his hands on his hips.

"I'm Jon Peterson, Andrè Fitzgerald sent me."

"So, you are the one he wanted me to hire?" the man asked as he looked me up and down. He nodded once and said, "You'll start tomorrow."

"What time would you like me to be here, sir?" I asked.

"Sir?" the manager asked astonished. He started laughing and I couldn't understand why. "Listen boy, there's no need for formalities here, just call me Joe."

"Alright." I said.

"I'll see to it that you'll be trained in well. Be here by twelve thirty"

"Thank you."

"No problem."

I waved as I walked out of the burger joint and saw three people standing by the Camaro. I recognized them from school from when I had seen them and inwardly grimaced. "Can I help you?" I asked as I approached them.

A redhead turned and smiled at me. "No, not really. Just admiring your car." he said.

"It isn't my car." I said.

"No? Well it sure is nice." the redhead said. "Whose car is it then?"

"That's no concern of yours."

"It is now that I'm curious." the redhead said crossing his arms across his chest.

"It belongs to a friend of mine, that's all." I said watching the group warily.

"The name's Vince." the ginger said extending his right hand.

"Jon." I said ignoring his hand. I didn't trust him. There was something off about him and his two friends.

Vince pulled back his hand and looked me up and down. "You should race sometime, it's a real blast." he said.

"I'm good, I prefer to keep things legal." I replied as I walked by the group and towards the Camaro.

"It's only illegal if you get caught." One of Vince's friends said. The three of them laughed and walked away and I climbed into the Camaro. I started the engine and buckled my seatbelt. I drove out of the parking lot and headed for the baseball fields. They seemed to always be the one place I felt like myself and not my parents' son. I arrived at the field at around 2:40 and pulled into a parking spot. I got out of the car and popped open the trunk. I walked onto the field with my things and settled into my batting stance. I took a couple of practice swings and did some stretching. My teammates showed up in the following minutes and they were all looking at me curiously, since I was new. I was the outsider on the team, the black sheep. I hoped that I would be able to change that throughout the season and get to know my team.

After three hours of practice, everyone left except for me. I was going through the hand signals and their meanings with my godfather one last time, and I wanted to work on throwing from center field to second base. I spent another half an hour catching baseballs and throwing them to second base before I called it good and headed back towards Andrè's Camaro. After twenty minutes of driving I arrived back home and went back inside. I went upstairs to my bedroom and grabbed new clothes. I walked to my bathroom and took a shower. I was excited for tomorrow, I got to work for the first time, but I was also nervous. I was a rich kid working in a fast food restaurant, you'd thing that I would have had higher standards. But I didn't and I didn't care. My parents approved of me getting a job and they were happy that I was playing baseball. I got out of the shower and headed downstairs towards the kitchen. Andrè was there and he handed me a plate full of steak and mashed potatoes. I thanked him and he nodded. I went to my own living room and put in last years game film from the high school team. As I ate my dinner, I couldn't help but feel sick when I watched Jasper get dominated game after game. They had only one win last season, finishing 1-21. They were no hit four times and scored on average one run per game. After I was finished eating, I shut the TV off and headed upstairs to get some sleep.

The next morning, Sunday, I woke up fully energized and ready for my first day of work. I had a lazy morning practically doing nothing until around noon when I left for work. I pulled into the KO Burger parking lot and walked into the restaurant at 12:20. Jack Darby was there and he looked like he hadn't slept well and that something had happened. "Hey, Jack how've you been?" I greeted him.

"Things have been OK, they could be better." Jack answered. "Why did you want to get a job here, of all places?"

I shrugged and asked, "Are you going to train me in then?"

"Why not?"

Over the course of the next hour and a half, Jack taught me the dos and don'ts of the job. His shift ended and he waved goodbye and exited the restaurant. I saw him approach a bike and then a motorcycle, the same one that I had seen on Friday. I was surprised to see Jack get on the motorcycle and ride off. I shook my head, I loved riding motorcycles but I liked driving just as much. I had grasped the concept of working here really quickly and that had surprised Jack. I think that he might have even been pleaded, because he didn't have to teach me much. All I had to do was watch him and I learned. I worked until just after six pm and handed my shift over to a coworker. I needed to go home and finish a project for school, I didn't really see the point in it for me because I wasn't in a science class but my history teacher wanted us to do it anyway if we weren't taking a science class. It took me twenty minutes to get back home due to traffic and once I got back, I ate lobster with my mom, dad was still at work she said, and then went up to my room and stayed up the majority of the night working on the project.

I took out a computer and hooked it up to a skateboard that I had attached a thruster on top of. I placed a program into the thruster and then placed stabilizing gloves on my hand and put the same programming into them. I had gotten the inspiration from Iron Man and was convinced that the technology was plausible. I placed a stabilizer on the bottom of the skateboard and placed the programming into that as well. I put the gloves on and finished plugging in the program. Once I was satisfied, I adjusted the gloves so I could easily take them on and off. I stepped onto the skateboard and took something that looked like a detonator and pressed the button. The skateboard floated off the ground and I stuck my hands out for the stability. I was grinning happily, until now I hadn't thought that this was going to work. Now that it was working, I couldn't have been happier. I guess that I must have inherited being able to understand computers from my parents. Tomorrow was going to be fun, I was going to blow the evaluators minds!

Monday morning arrived and I was still tired from staying up late. I got up and headed to the weight room in the mansion because it had been a while since I had last worked out. I worked out for an hour before I went back to my bathroom and showered, shaved, brushed my teeth, etc. I grabbed my science project from my desk and carried it downstairs. I was wearing my familiar black shorts and dog tags. My shirt was blue with a shark on it and I went out to the Camaro. "Good luck, laddy." Andrè called from the balcony.

I turned around and smiled at him. "What could go wrong?" I shouted back.

"A lot of things, boyo, your board could blow up."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Andrè!" I called.

"No problem, laddy, no problem." Andrè called back.

I got into the Camaro and couldn't help but feel the corners of my lips turn upwards. There was something about Andrè that always could brighten my day. I drove to the school and grabbed my science project off the passengers seat and walked into the school. I walked to the room we were supposed to go to and saw Jack there. He was holding what looked like a chainsaw. "Jack, what is that?" I asked as I approached.

"My science project," Jack replied. "What do you have, it looks like a skateboard."

"In a way it is a skateboard." I said.

"Could you go before me?" Jack asked, "I'm a bit nervous."

"Yeah." I said.

"Next." a teacher said non-enthusiastically.

I walked into the classroom and set the skateboard on the ground. The teachers raised their eyebrows and shook their heads. "What is this, it's supposed to be a science project not an X-Games promo." a teacher said.

"Don't worry, it's a science project," I assured them. "Just give me a little time to set up." I put the gloves on and grabbed the switch. I hooked everything up together and turned to look back at the teachers. "Ready?" I asked them as they took out evaluation sheets.

"Yes, we are ready." a teacher replied. "Your name?"

"Jon Peterson."

"Grade?"

"Sophomore?"

"Are you asking or telling?"

"Both."

"Get it over with then Mister Peterson if you're just going to waste our time."

I sighed and got on the skateboard, hit the switch and everything activated. I started to hover in the air and then I hit another switch on the bottom of the main switch and the thruster activated. I shot across the room and I rode the skateboard around on the ceiling and the walls. I hovered in front of the teachers for a couple of moments, then shut everything down and landed. "That is all, hope I didn't waste your precious time." I said with a bow. I looked up from the floor and at the teachers' faces, they were priceless! I picked up the skateboard and walked out of the classroom and headed towards the library. A couple of moments later I heard a terrified screech and I turned back around. I saw Jack come out of the classroom and I walked back over to him. "What happened?" I asked.

"My project didn't work the way I wanted it to." Jack said rubbing the back of his head.

A small kid with spiky brown hair, square glasses, and a huge project walked into the room and I heard a male teacher say, "I hesitate to ask Mister Esquivel, but uh is it active?" There was a moment of silence and then the sound of energy gathering. The room illuminated and there was more terrified screaming when whatever was going on in there went off. The kid walked out of the room looking embarrassed and Jack asked, "How did it go, Raf?"

"I blew a hole in the ceiling." the kid replied.

My eyes widened in shock. "You blew through the ceiling?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yup." the kid said pushing his glasses up higher onto his nose.

I whistled and shook my head, "Remind me never to get on your bad side." I said. I looked at Jack and then said, "See you at work." I looked down at Raf and said, "Don't go around blowing things up anymore, and keep Jack in line."

"Will do." Raf said.

I nodded and walked away from the duo and out of the building. Another baseball practice today and work afterwards, absolute joy!

**Autobot Base: Undisclosed Location**

Jack was walking around the human area while Raf and Miko raced. What was it about Jon that was so interesting? "What is it Jack?" Arcee asked.

"It's nothing, I've just been thinking about the new kid that started attending school." Jack answered.

"Is he taller than you, brown hair, and athletic looking?" Arcee asked.

"Yeah, how do you know?" Jack asked.

"I've seen him a couple of times." Arcee replied with a slight shrug. "The first time was when I first had to pick you up from school and the second was when I picked you up from work."

"There's something about him that throws me off." Jack said.

"What is it?" Raf asked looking at Jack. "He seemed nice when I met him after the accident with Ratchet's volcano."

"What do you know about the Peterson's?" Jack asked Raf.

"The technology tycoons?" Raf asked. Jack nodded. "Besides they're responsible for the first successful EMP, ray gun, computers that can detect a moving soundwave ten thousand miles away? Nothing really, the military employs them. That's about all I know. Jon Peterson their son won the Little League World Series."

"Yeah, they beat Japan!" Miko said angrily.

"I still don't see what you think is off about him." Arcee said.

"I'm not sure either, I just think there's something." Jack said.

"Autobots, an incoming signal from a ship entering the earth's atmosphere." Optimus Prime said.

"Autobot or Decepticon?" Bulkhead asked.

"Autobot." Optimus replied. He walked over to the ground bridge controls and said, "The ship just crash landed, Autobots, prepare to roll out."

Ratchet opened the ground bridge and Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Optimus walked through. Jack started pacing again and Miko exclaimed, "Dude, sit down you're freaking me out!"

"Sorry, Miko." Jack apologized as he sat down on the couch.

"Ratchet, open up the ground bridge." Optimus' voice said after a couple of minutes. Ratchet opened the bridge and the Autobots walked in accompanied by a new bot, he was all black and had Autobot blue eyes.

"Optimus," Ratchet said as he closed the ground bridge staring at the new arrival. "Is that really…"

"Shadestalker, yes." Optimus said.

"Epic name!" Miko yelled.

"Sir, what are those?" the new bot asked Optimus in a voice that sounded like a teenagers or a young adults, pointing to Jack, Miko, and Raf.

"Those, Shadestalker, are humans," Optimus answered. "Indigenous to this planet, they are similar to Cybertronians. We protect them from the Decepticons and avoid harming them at all costs."

"I understand, sir." Shadestalker said with a nod.

"You'll need an alt mode so that you can blend in." Arcee said.

Shadestalker looked at Arcee and raised an optic ridge and asked, "Where do I get one?"

"Out there." Bulkhead said pointing at the tunnel that led out of the base.

"Wouldn't it just be easier if I could access an image off of a data source and download it into my system?" Shadestalker asked.

"It would be, we just have never thought of that approach before." Ratchet said.

"I think he should be a Ferrari!" Miko said excitedly.

"I think he'd look better as a Mustang." Raf said.

"What are they talking about?" Shadestalker asked looking at Arcee questionably.

"Car types." the femme replied.

"Got it, so how did these humans get under the protection of the team?" the new arrival asked.

"Jack and Raf, the two boys," Arcee said gesturing to the two. "Caught Bee and me in action against the Cons. Miko saw me talking to Jack and I had to bring her here too."

Shadestalker nodded once in understanding and looked around the base. He smiled and looked at Ratchet and asked, "Can you find the schematics of a Lamborghini Gallardo?"

The three teenagers' jaws dropped and they looked at the black Autobot in surprise. "How do you even know what a Lamborghini is?" Miko asked.

Shadestalker looked over at the humans with amusement and answered, "The Internet."

"You can access it from your mind?" Raf asked.

"If the need is there. I was curious about the cars on your planet and searched until I found one I liked, the Lamborghini." Shadestalker said in a relaxed voice.

Ratchet typed on the computer and then plugged in some sort of cord and handed it to Shadestalker. Shadestalker put the cord in the back of his head and Ratchet said, "The download will take only a couple of seconds."

"Go for it, doctor." Shadestalker said. He closed his optics and Jack noticed how he looked a bit like Bumblebee, but older. Ratchet hit a button and Jack assumed that the download had started. There was a ding and Shadestalker opened his optics and smiled at Ratchet. "Thanks, Ratchet." he said.

"Well, how does it look?" Miko asked.

There was the sound of shifting gears and metal and pretty soon the black mech was replaced with a black Lamborghini Gallardo. Shadestalker transformed back into his bipedal form and thanked Ratchet again. He then turned and looked at Optimus and asked, "What would you have me do, sir?"

"Rest for now, Shadestalker," the Prime said. "You've had a long journey and now your here with the rest of the team. Tomorrow, I would like you to get a holoform of a human created and enroll in the local school for a single class."

"Why is that sir?" Shadestalker asked, puzzled. The other Autobots were curious as well.

"Agent Fowler has brought it to my attention that there is a secret organization within this country that is causing mayhem for his agency. Agent Fowler has evidence that the Petersons were involved, but not their son. I want you to try and befriend the son and get information that can help our allies."

"Why can't the humans take care of their own?" Arcee asked. "If they have evidence that these people were there why not arrest them?"

"It isn't conclusive evidence." Optimus said looking at Arcee.

"That's a bit unfair for the kid, don't you think?" Shadestalker asked.

"It is, but lives could be at stake."

"Peterson is a common name," Jack said speaking up. "You'll have to be specific on who the son is."

"Jon Peterson." Optimus said nodding to Ratchet. An image of Jon appeared and he was at the baseball field. A second picture was brought up and it showed what looked to be Jon's parents exiting a building, each with a brief case.

Arcee looked over at Jack and said wryly, "I think we figured out what was off about him."

Jack nodded and looked back at Optimus and asked, "Why spy on Jon?"

"Get to know the kid, befriend him and eventually doors will open." Bulkhead said.

"I still don't see how Jon factors into this." Jack said crossing his arms in thought.

"If Shadestalker can get inside the Peterson's household and find conclusive evidence that they were helping Agent Fowler's agency's enemies, then there isn't a risk of lives being lost." Optimus said.

"I'll go prepare for the mission." Shadestalker said.

"One more thing before you go," Optimus said looking at Shadestalker. Shadestalker turned around and looked at the Prime respectively. "Don't get attached to the boy, we don't want to bring another human life into this war."

"I understand, sir." Shadestalker said saluting Optimus, then turning away and exiting down a corridor.

After a couple of hours, Shadestalker emerged from wherever he had gone to. He went to where the humans were playing video games and tapped Jack on the shoulder. Jack turned around and asked, "How can I help you?"

"I was wondering, is this an alright holoform?" Shadestalker asked as he sat down and closed his eyes. A human materialized before Jack and the human was six foot two, good build, broad shoulders, had black hair and blue eyes. The holoform had a strong jawline, proud nose, and wore black shorts and a black shirt.

Jack nodded and said, "I think that's convincing enough, although if you go around driving in your alt form, it'll draw suspicion."

"He's right." Arcee said walking over.

The holoform winked out and Shadestalker stood up. "What should I do?" he asked. Bumblebee beeped and moaned and Shadestalker nodded. "That sounds like an excellent plan to me Bee."

"What did he say?" Jack asked confused.

"Bee said that the holoform could ride in his alt form to school and to my house to pick me up. It'll look like the holoform's family will be my friends that pick me up after school in the muscle car." Raf said.

"You can understand Bumblebee?" Shadestalker asked in amazement.

"He's the only human that can." Arcee said.

"What should my name be, I obviously can't go around as Shadestalker."

"Well, I think that you could keep a component of your name, like Shade." Raf said.

"That's more of a last name, Raf." Miko pointed out. She seemed to think for a bit and then brightened up. "How about Phil Shade?" Miko asked.

"I like it." Shadestalker said with a shrug. He looked at Arcee and at Bumblebee. "What do the two of you think?"

"I personally think that human names are odd." Arcee said. Bumblebee beeped and nodded in agreement.

"I'll take that as encouragement then." Shadestalker said.

"Sweet!" Miko said. "I named a holoform for an Autobot!"

"I just hope that it doesn't take me too long to earn that kid's trust." Shadestalker said looking up towards the ceiling in thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Shades of Life

**Peterson Mansion**

I woke up to the sound of thunder and looked at my clock. It was only three o'clock in the morning and this wasn't a good way to start the day. I figured that I wasn't going to fall back asleep so I got out of bed and headed downstairs. I went towards the East wing and headed for another set of stairs. This set of stairs led to a basement that served as a shooting range, an indoor one but a shooting range nonetheless. I went to where my longbow was and carefully strung it. I set the bow on a table and set up targets. If I ever needed to relax or just enjoy some alone time, this is the place that I almost always came to. My mom hated weapons, so she wouldn't come near the basement, and my dad he was always busy with his work. After I had set up the target and backdrop, I went back to my longbow. It had a fifty pound draw back weight and it was black with a rubber grip. I grabbed ten arrows and went to the table I had set the bow on. I picked it up and knocked an arrow. I was about twenty yards away from the target, so I needed to elevate the bow a little bit to get to where I wanted the arrow to go. I drew the string back and sighted down the arrow's shaft, looking at the bullseye. I was a right handed shot, with a breath I aimed up a bit and released. The arrow went flying towards the target and I quickly knocked another arrow just as the last one hit the target. I drew back and sighted again and saw that I was in the red section, up and to the right of where I had been aiming. I adjusted and fired again, this time hitting the bullseye. I fired another three arrows before I heard, "I haven't seen you down here in quite some time, laddy."

I turned around in surprise and saw Andrè standing there looking at me. "Hey, Andrè." I greeted him.

"Something on your mind?" Andrè asked descending down the rest of the stairs.

I shook my head and set the bow down on the table. "Nothing really. It's just that my dad's never here now that he got this new job working for my uncle." I said.

"Your father is a busy man." Andrè said stepping towards me. He put a hand on my shoulder and I looked up into his kind face. "He will always love you, don't you forget that."

"I won't."

"What else is on your mind?"

I sighed and turned back around to face the target. I picked up the bow and knocked an arrow. I drew back and replied, "There was something off about two kids that I met at school yesterday. One I met on my first day and the other I met for the first time."

"What makes them seem odd to you?" Andrè asked as I shot an arrow.

I set the bow down again and said, "It's as if the two of them know the same thing and know that thing has to remain a secret."

"And you don't have secrets?"

"I do, but three can keep a secret if two of them are dead."

"That's true, lad," Andrè said stepping closer. "But I fear that you will have to tell someone about it sooner or later."

"I choose later." I said.

"Ah, lad you can rarely choose when you're going to reveal something. Circumstances usually say something different."

"I know." I sighed.

"You should go back to bed, lad." Andrè said softly.

I nodded and walked to the stairs. I walked up the stairs and headed back to my room. I took a little detour and went outside on the balcony. I leaned against the railing and held my grandpa's dog tags in my right hand. They were special to me because they were one of the last reminders that I had of my grandfather. He had died from a heart attack three years ago, but he had been a main component of my life. He had been a Marine in Vietnam and I had never asked him about his war stories, because I knew he'd never tell me. He was the one who had taught me how to shoot a gun, a bow, and how to fight if I ever needed to. I had fought in some mixed martial arts competitions in the past, but other than that I tried not to fight unless someone started something with me first. My grandpa had also taught me how to hot wire a car and with him at the age of three, I had built my first circuit board. People think that my parents are the ones that developed the ray gun, but in truth I had looked over my dad's blueprints and saw some errors in his work. I had fixed them and the ray gun became a success. I had never told a soul, but my grandma and grandpa both knew, because I had been ten at the time. I had asked them what a ray gun was and they had told me. They also told me not to tell another person that I had actually been behind the weapon and most of my parents' other inventions. All I had done was fix some of the equations and my parents never knew. They were still brilliantly smart, but I never let them know. My grandma had died from lymphatic cancer five years ago. I missed both of my grandparents and I now had a nagging suspicion that Andrè knew of my secrets as well. I watched the sun rise from the balcony before I went back inside to my room. I set a new alarm for eleven then fell back to sleep.

_Couple of hours later…_

My alarm woke me up on time and I went and took a shower. I got ready for the school day and made sure that I had my things for baseball practice. I changed into red basketball shorts and a black T-shirt, slipped on socks, and then headed downstairs. It looked like a warm day outside and I thought I could see some rain clouds. I grabbed the keys to the Camaro from the key hook and went outside. It was humid and I'm guessing around seventy-five degrees. I got in the Camaro and started the car, then drove off. I was listening to a playlist of mine that was on shuffl mode. The first song that came up was Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson. By the time I pulled into the school's parking lot, I had also listened to Alive and Amplified by the Moony Suzuki, Hell's Bells by AC/DC, Last Resort by Papa Roach, and Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. I got out of the Camaro and shrugged my backpack on. I walked into the school and signed in at the main office. I was walking to my history class when I saw a new student walking to the same room. He was dressed in black and had black hair as well. He looked up and saw me and frowned. I nodded to him and he nodded back. We both walked into class and I sat down and took out my things. The new student went to the teacher and talked with her. She nodded and pointed to an empty spot next to me. I frowned at that, I liked being alone, now I was going to have someone sit next to me. The kid sat down next to me and I noticed his striking blue eyes. They seemed almost electric in a way. "Hello, I'm Phil, Phil Shade." the new kid said kindly.

"Jon, Jon Peterson." I replied a bit coldly.

Phil put his hands in the air in a sign of defeat and I knew our conversation was over, for now. A couple of minutes later Phil asked, "Play any sports?"

"Yeah, baseball." I answered looking up briefly from my work then back down at it.

"Could I still go out for the team?" Phil asked.

"If you can pitch." I said not looking up from my work.

"When's practice?"

"After school at three thirty, the baseball fields." I answered looking up at Phil. He opened his mouth to ask another question but I silenced him by saying, "Just let me work."

"Alright."

The period ended and I was followed by Phil to the main office. "Aren't you going to any more classes?" I asked him.

"I have only that one class, other than that I'm homeschooled." Phil answered with a sligh shrug as he stepped next to me. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"To the baseball fields."

"I thought practice wasn't until three thirty." Phil said obviously confused.

"For everyone else, not for me. Coach Ramirez is there and puts me through some drills." I said as I sighed out at the main office. Phil signed out after me.

"Can I get a ride with you to the baseball fields?" Phil asked.

I sighed and thought for a couple of seconds and looked at Phil. "Sure." I said narrowing my eyes. I wasn't sure if I could just trust this guy yet, he seemed like he was trying to become a friend of mine or something.

"Thanks." Phil said smiling at me.

I grunted and led him to the Camaro and he looked surprised. I looked over at him and asked in amusement, "Expecting a nicer or newer car?"

"Not…not really." Phil stammered.

I got in the car and unlocked the other door. "Comin' in?" I asked.

Phil nodded and opened the door, then got in the car. "Thanks for the ride." he said.

"No problem." I replied as I started the car and drove out of the parking lot. I plugged in my iPod and hit play. The Sound of Madness by Shinedown started playing and I drove to the fields. I pulled into the baseball field parking lot and shut the car down. I popped the trunk and exited the car. Phil got out after me and followed me as I walked onto the field. Coach Ramirez was standing on the pitchers mound with a bucket of balls next to him. I greeted him and put on my cleats. "Who's your friend?" Coach asked.

"He's not my friend," I said. "He just moved here and wants to play baseball."

"Really?" Coach asked suddenly interested in Phil. "What position do you play?"

"I can pitch." Phil said with a shrug.

Coach Ramirez raised an eyebrow and stepped aside on the mound. "Jon, go in the batters box and we'll see what this young man can do."

I nodded and headed towards the batters box. Once there I took my bat and banged it against my left cleat a couple of times, and then I made a cross on home plate with the bat. I settled into my batting stance and watched as Coach Ramirez talked to Phil. Phil nodded and grabbed a ball from the bucket. "Alright, Jon, get ready!" Coach Ramirez called. I gave a small nod and watched as Phil got ready to deliver the pitch. I twitched my bat a couple of times like I would do in a game, I hadn't faced a real pitcher in a long time. Phil lifted his left leg and threw the baseball. Time slowed and I recognized it as a two-seam fastball. It came baring down and in, towards the imaginary strike zone's bottom corner. I swung my bat and the sound of my bat crushing the ball was heard on the field. Time seemed to go back to normal and I watched the ball sail to left field. It rattled off the fence and I settled back into my batting stance. Coach Ramirez said something to Phil, who once again nodded and grabbed another ball. I made an X on home plate this time and got easy for the pitch. Phil reared back and threw the ball. Time slowed once again and I recognized it as a four seam fastball, it was going towards the bottom of the strike zone. I swung and time sped up again. The ball went zipping up the middle on the ground. Phil narrowed his eyes and I shrugged. I'm guessing that the fastball had been close to eighty-eight miles per hour. Phil grabbed another ball and I settled back into my stance. Coach narrowed his eyes and neither Phil or I noticed. This had become a competition between the two of us. I didn't think that I was going to go perfect against Phil, I just wanted to hit off of him. Phil lifted his left leg, and chucked the ball towards home plate. It was a change up from what I could see. I swung and the ball flew strait intro the air. Phil lifted his glove and caught the ball. I nodded at him and he nodded back. I got into my batting stance and he got into his pitching stance. I took a deep breath and watched as he threw the ball. It was a curveball, it was coming down and it had a lot of break to it. I didn't swing as it went in the dirt. Other kids would have swung at the curveball, but I had enough experience to know not to swing at it. Coach Ramirez walked onto the mound and said something and Phil nodded. Phil jogged over to where I was and I frowned. "Coach wants me to hit a couple of balls and he wants you to catch them and throw them back." Phil said.

"Alright," I said surrendering my bat. "You throw pretty good stuff."

"Really?" Phil asked in surprise.

"Yeah, you're better than most pitchers in high school." I said as I bent down and grabbed my glove. I straightened up and asked, "Can you hit far enough into center?"

"Certainly." Phil said.

I nodded and jogged out to center field and waited for Coach Ramirez to lob the balls so that I could get my drills out of the way. I watched as Coach lobbed a ball and heard the crack of the bat. I tracked the path of the ball and ran forward as the ball fell. I reached out my left hand and caught the ball in my glove. I quickly transferred the ball to my right hand and I threw the ball back to the pitchers mound. We did my drills for another twenty minutes before Coach Ramirez called me to the mound. I jogged over and he signaled Phil over as well. "Practice is done, boys," he said. "Phil, you've made the team. Jon, our first game is in three days."

"Who do we play?" I asked.

"The defending state champs." Coach Ramirez replied.

I nodded and thanked coach for his time and he nodded back. I walked off the field and took my glove and cleats off. I set them down on the pavement and put on my tennisshoes. I heard the sound of gravel crunching and looked up to see Phil approaching me. He extended my bat towards me and I nodded my thanks. "Can you take me back to the school?" Phil asked.

"Why?"

"My ride should be there to pick me up after school gets done." Phil answered with a slight shrug.

"School doesn't get out for another two hours," I pointed out. "Your welcome to come and have lunch with me, if you'd like."

Phil seemed taken back by my offer but nodded and said, "Sure, where?"

"A fast food place, the KO Burger," I said. "I work there, and their food is pretty good."

"Sounds good." Phil said.

We got in the Camaro and as I drove us to KO Burger, a question popped into my mind. "What do your parents do?" I asked quickly looking at Phil.

"I'm…" Phil paused seeming to look for a right word to use, then he continued. "I'm in a foster home. My parents were killed in a war."

"You're not American?" I asked. He didn't look like any ethnicity that was at war, and he didn't have a foreign accent really.

"No, far from it." Phil said shaking his head. "What do your parents do?" he asked.

"My parents?" I asked, and Phil nodded. "My mom works for a big technological company, and I just know that my dad is now working for my uncle."

"Do you know as what?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm just never around them. The only one that I have around me is Andrè."

"Who?"

"My family's butler." I answered.

"So, your family is rich yet you're working?"

"I have to start somewhere, that's what my dad told me." I answered. "Where are ya from?"

"Umm, I don't really wanna talk about that." Phil answered evasively.

"I'll just stick to the fact that you're an alien." I said jokingly, I didn't notice that Phil had stiffened when I had said alien. I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and said, "We're here."

"I just need to make a call, I'll meet you inside." Phil said.

"Alright." I said exiting the Camaro. "Lock it when you leave."

"I will." Phil assured me.

I walked into the fast food restaurant and ordered a double bacon cheese burger basket, then went and sat down in a booth.

**Shadestalker's POV**

After the human had left, I quickly contacted Optimus and Ratchet. Ratchet answered and our medic asked, "What have you learned so far, Shadestalker?"

"The kid is really passionate about his sports. He doesn't have much of a family life though," I replied. "His sire is working for his uncle, but the kid doesn't know as what."

"Anything else that you've learned?" Ratchet asked me.

"The kid's hard to get to," I paused. "He's weary of me, I can sense that."

"Jack had told Arcee that Jon was looking out for gold diggers," I heard Bulkhead's voice say. "He doesn't want any false friendships, so he doesn't let anyone in."

"Thanks, Bulk." I said.

"No problem, Shadey." Bulk replied.

I sighed, I hated being called that. The only ones that could get away with it were my cousins Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, but I hadn't seen them in vorns. "Is Optimus there?" I asked.

"No, he went on an Energon scouting mission with Bee." Bulkhead answered.

"Alright, that's all I have to report for now," I said. "Shadestalker out." I hung up and out of the car. I walked inside the restaurant, I didn't even know if I could eat human food in this form. I saw Jon sitting at a booth eating something and I walked over to him.

He looked up from his food and nodded at me. "I didn't know what you liked, so I just got you a bacon cheeseburger." he said.

"Umm, thanks." I said as I sat down across from him.

"No problem." Jon said with a shrug of his shoulders. He took a sip out of a cup and swallowed. Jon set the cup down and looked at me curiously. "Aren't you going to eat your burger?" he asked.

"What, oh?" I answered looking down at the bacon cheeseburger on the table. I picked it up and cautiously took a bite. A burst of flavors exploded in my mouth. This is what humans ate? I ate the burger and sat back in the booth satisfied. "Thank you." I said to Jon.

"No problem, I take it you've never eaten a burger before?" Jon said looking at me.

I shook my head, "No, I haven't." I answered.

"First time for everything." Jon said.

"What did you mean by me being an alien?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I meant that you're not from the US." Jon said.

"Oh, alright." I said with an inward sigh of relief. The last thing I wanted was Fowler on my aft for getting another human involved in the War. I wouldn't admit it, but I was starting to warm up to the kid. He seemed genuinely nice, intelligent, and caring enough. But I also remembered what Optimus had told me, avoid becoming attached to him.

"We should head back to the school if I'm goin' to get you back in time." Jon said after we had sat in the booth for a couple of minutes.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Twenty minutes until school gets out and it takes roughly ten minutes to get there due to all the stop lights." Jon said. He stood up and stretched a bit then walked towards the door. I stood up and followed him outside. We got back inside the car and Jon started the engine. A song started playing and I lifted my head up from looking at the floor mats. It had a good beat to me and I had no idea what these earth instruments were.

"What song is this?" I asked looking at Jon.

"Working Man by Rush." Jon answered as he drove out of the parking lot. After we had been driving for a bit, Jon glanced in the rear view mirror and frowned.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I think we're being followed." he replied.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Look behind us and tell me you don't see two black or dark purple cars with extremely tinted windshields following us." Jon said grimly.

I turned in my seat and my spark almost stopped, Decepticons. I silently cursed and I desperately wanted to tell Jon that he was in danger and I was sorry for that, but I didn't get the chance as Jon took a sudden right turn and then accelerated quickly and then turned into an abandoned alley. I looked at him quizzically and he shrugged. "What is going on?" I demanded.

"No clue," Jon replied as he backed into a spot and shut the engine off. "But I have the feeling we'll find out soon enough." He then took the keys out of the ignition and looked at me and I saw a fire in his eyes. "Unlock the glove box." he said tossing the keys to me.

I caught the keys and wearily looked at the human, but I did as he asked. "What am I looking for?" I asked.

"Just pull the black box out." Jon said.

I pulled the box he was asking for out and handed it to him. Jon opened the box and I saw a remote. "What is that?" I asked.

"Just a remote in case we were being followed." Jon said with a grin.

"There's something else in there, isn't there?" I asked.

"Two things are actually," Jon said. "Self defense purposes only."

We sat in the alley for a while and it was clear that the Decepticons hadn't followed us here. "Looks like we're good to go." I said.

"Sure looks that way." Jon agreed as he handed the box back to me. He started the car and we headed to the school.

I got out of the car and thanked Jon for lunch. He just brushed it off looked of towards the big tree. His eyes narrowed and he got out of the car. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Something's going on at the tree," Jon said clearly unhappy. "And noone's doing a thing about it."

"What's going on?" I asked looking over at the tree. I saw Raf and six other kids at the three and the six other kids were laughing. Raf looked terrified.

"Trouble." Jon answered gruffly as he walked over to the tree.

I looked around and saw Bumblebee pull up and I cursed. I ran to him and he opened up his doors. He beeped and chirped. "Raf's in a tight spot right now, bud," I said. Bee chirped angrily and I sighed. "You can't do anything, you'd give yourself away." Bee churned again. "You don't have a holoform though, Bee." A human materialized in the drivers seat. The human had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was wearing jeans with a black and yellow striped shirt. The holoform raised an eyebrow and I looked at Bee and shook my head. "We better get going and get Raf out of that ring, I don't like it." I said. Bee nodded on agreement.

Bee got out of his alt mode and I saw that Jon was almost to the tree. Time seemed to slow as I saw a human with red hair draw back his fist and start to swing. Jon broke into a sprint and tackled the red head before the swing connected with Raf. Miko and Jack came out of the school and saw Raf, then immediately ran to him. "Lets go." I said to Bee. The two of us walked over towards the tree.

**Jon's POV**

I got up off of Vince and went and stood protectively in front of Rafael. "What the hell were you thinking?" I demanded glaring at Vince.

"What's your problem, Peterson?" Vince asked. "I was just havening fun."

"Bull shit," I said. "Pick on someone your own size without a gang behind you."

"You challenging me to a fight?" Vince asked grinning.

"No, I'm just saying stop being an asshole."

"I think he wants a fight boys." Vince said to his gang. I glanced up and saw Miko and Jack running towards us. I made eye contact with Jack and gave a slight shake of my head. Jack grabbed Miko and they stopped running.

"I don't want to fight," I said to Vince. "I just want you to stop picking on Rafael."

"I can do whatever I want to, Peterson." Vince snarled as he took a step closer.

"You'll learn otherwise." I told Vince coldly.

Vince and three of his gang members charged at Raf and me. I caught Vince's punch and bent his wrist back. The gang friend on the right, I lashed out with my knee and connected with the kid's thigh. I stomped on that kid's food and then kneed him in the face. Still holding Vince by the fist I spun him so that he hit the other charging kid. The kid fell to the ground and I kicked him in the side of the head, discombobulating him. I pulled Vince in closer and with my right hand punched him in the gut. All of the breath rushed out of him and I threw Vince to the ground. The other three kids turned and ran. Miko and Jack approached us and I turned away as Rafael ran to the two of them. I saw Phil walking with someone towards here. The other guy had blonde hair and was wearing jeans and a shirt that had black and yellow stripes. The two got to me and the kid with the blonde hair whispered something into Phil's ear. "My friend would like to thank you for sticking up for Raf." Phil said.

"No problem," I said. "It was self defense on my part, they struck first."

"I didn't know you were rich and you could fight!" I heard Miko exclaim behind me. I had only met the girl once and that was because she had eaten at the KO Burger once when I had worked there.

I sighed and turned around. "I try to avoid fighting as much as I possibly can," I said. "Violence leads to more violence."

"But you were totally awesome!" Miko said happily. "Who taught you how to fight?"

My face soured for a split second, then it was back to normal and I answered, "Doesn't matter, he was a good teacher."

"Can…"

"I don't think Jon wants to talk about it." Jack interrupted Miko.

I looked at him gratefully and said, "I'm going to head home, I'll see all of you tomorrow." I turned and left, heading towards Andrè's car. I got in and started the engine, then pulled out of where I had parked and left.

_Autobot Base after the incident…_

**Shadestalker's POV**

No sooner had my holoform gotten out of Bumblebee did I deactivate it and stand up from the corner I had been sitting in. My joints creaked and groaned in protest as I did so. The three humans went to their little area and Arcee approached me. "What did you learn today?" she asked me.

"Jon knows a lot about baseball." I said.

"You know that's not what I meant." Arcee said.

"I know Cee," I said with a sigh. "I'm coming to respect the kid. He's a hard worker, doesn't have much of a family life because of how busy his creators are, and doesn't have any friends."

"He's a pretty descent fighter too from what I saw." Arcee said with some amusement.

I snorted, "The other humans didn't even know how to fight."

"Maybe, but Jon certainly does." Raf said speaking up.

"What do you mean?" I asked looking at the youngling.

"He fought in MMA for his age for a couple of years," Raf said. "He went 12-0 with 10 knockouts and two tap outs."

"MMA?" Arcee asked.

"It's fighting." Jack supplied.

"It's on TV right now actually." Miko said.

I looked at the TV and saw two humans beating the scrap out of each other. "That reminds me a lot of the gladiator games back on Cybertron." I said.

"What were those?" Raf asked.

"Mechs and femmes fought for the pleasure of the crowd," Optimus said as he walked into the room. "Sometimes it was to the death, other times, if the warriors fought well enough for the crowd, the loser was spared."

"That's barbaric." Raf said disgusted.

"I know, I was a part of it." I said. The three kids looked at me in surprise and I gave them a sad smile. "I was a gladiator in the pits of Kaon for a while, it was my caste."

"How did you get your name?" Miko asked.

"I got it by being a strategist," I answered remembering those horrible days. "Since I was a black armored mech I blended into the shadows pretty well and ambushed my opponents." I paused. "They eventually started calling me Shadestalker in the Pits, and that's how I gotta name."

"Oh." Miko said subdued a bit.

"How did you get your name?" I asked curiously.

"My parents named me." Miko said blinking a couple of times.

I nodded and walked out of the room and headed towards my quarters. "Shadestalker," I heard Optimus say. I turned around and saw my commander.

"Yes, sir?" I asked.

"Everything alright?" Optimus asked.

"Not really, sir." I answered.

"Care to elaborate?"

"I'm starting to feel respect for the boy that you told me to spy on, I'm not sure he trusts me quite yet, sir." I said.

"I see," Optimus said. "I heard that you made the baseball team."

"How? I told no one!" I asked astonished.

"Agent Fowler is good friends with your coach." Optimus said with a slight smile.

"Sorry sir, that was the best way that I figured I could get to know Jon and maybe gain his trust." I said.

"I understand, we'll try to make it to your game in a couple of days." Optimus said clearly amused.

"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" I asked raising an optic ridge.

"No, I just had my suspicions," Optimus said. "Get some rest and report to the same routine tomorrow as you did today."

"Yes, sir." I said saluting Optimus.

Optimus nodded and left. I lowered my arm and headed to my quarters. I entered my room and sat on my berth. Hopefully tomorrow, I would be able to break Jon's seemingly impenetrable cacoon.

**Authors Note:**

**Thank you Peraklese Tandrum for the favorite and alert.**

**Please R&R **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Game Day Comes with Betrayal

**Peterson Mansion**

It was three hours until my first game in high school and I was sitting at home listening to music to get my mind off of things. My parents wouldn't be able to make it to the game, big surprise there. I looked at my clock and decided I should head to the school so that I could gather with the rest of the team. I grabbed my bat and glove from underneath my bed, and then walked out of my room. As I walked down the stairs, I realized that I had forgotten my grandpa's dog tags. I cursed silently and then turned around and headed back towards my room. I got into my room and was surprised to see someone standing in there. The person was of big build, had gray or silver hair, and seemed to me wearing military type clothing or body armor. "Can I help you?" I asked.

The person turned around and I took a step back when I saw that it was my uncle. "Actually Jon, you can help me." my uncle said.

"What can I help you with?" I asked.

"Do you know anything about machines and how they work?" my uncle asked me.

"Yes," I answered carefully. "But I don't see why this is relevant."

"I was wondering if you'd like a job working with me for a better world," my uncle said. "You'd get to work along side your father."

"What's the business or thing called?" I asked.

"MECH." my uncle answered.

"No thanks, I have a job already." I said as I walked over to my dresser. I grabbed my grandpa's dog tags and put them around my neck. I turned around and looked at my uncle and asked. "Uncle, are you and my dad going to be able to make it to my game?"

"Sorry, Jon." my uncle replied. "We can't make it, we have important things to work on."

"Alright," I said, I had expected that but I couldn't help but feel disappointed. "I understand." My uncle's scar across his face always intrigued me, but I never asked how he got it.

"Good luck today, Jon." my uncle said as he walked towards me and placed his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure you'll do excellent."

"Thanks, Uncle." I said with a smile.

"No problem, kid." my uncle said with a kind smile. He patted my shoulder then left my room. I felt my phone vibrate and I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that it was an unknown number. I answered the phone and asked, "Hello?"

"Jon?"

"Phil?" I asked in astonishment.

"Yes, is this Jon?" Phil answered.

"Yes, how did you get my number?"

"Coach Ramirez gave it to me," Phil answered. "He wants to know what your walk up song will be."

"Intro to Seven Nation Army," I answered. "Why didn't he just call me and ask?"

"His phone oddly enough wasn't working, I'm on the way to the school right now, want a ride?"

"Sure, just look for a mansion." I said.

"Alright, I'll be there in roughly ten minutes." Phil said.

"What type of car will I be looking for?" I asked.

"Ummm hold on for a second, let me ask my foster parents." Phil said.

"Alright." I said.

Phil came back on after a minute or so and asked, "You still there?"

"Yeah, what kind of car am I looking for?" I asked again.

There was a sigh and then Phil answered, "A Lamborghini Gallardo."

My mouth fell open, "You can't be serious!" I blurted.

"I am, my foster dad will be driving." Phil answered.

"I'll see you in ten minutes then." I said.

"Yup, see you then." Phil replied.

I hung up and put my phone back in my pocket. I had no idea that Phil had been adopted into a rich family. I had no idea that there was another family that rich in the Jasper area! I left my room and headed down the stairs and found André at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me. "Hello, André." I said.

"Hello, lad." André greeted. He didn't look pleased.

"What's wrong, André?" I asked.

"I'm disappointed that your parents won't show up to their own son's baseball game." André said.

"So am I." I said stopping next to André.

"Good luck today, boy." André said slapping me on the back.

"Thanks, André." I said. "I'll see you when I get back."

"No you won't, laddy." André said sadly.

"What do you mean?" I asked worried.

"I quit, apparently your patents' work is more important than you are." André said sadly.

"Why are you quitting?" I asked.

"I told your mother and your father that if one of them refused to go to your first game, I'd quit," André said. "They both laughed, I have to follow through boy."

"I understand." I said feeling choked up.

André removed a ring off of his finger and handed it to me. It was a beautiful ring. It was a gold band with a sapphire set in it. I looked on the underside and saw an inscription etched into it. _Sanat remissionem animi atque animai _I looked up at André and asked, "What does it mean?"

"It's Latin," André said with a slight smile. "It means forgiveness heals the mind and soul."

"Thank you." I said slipping the ring on with the dog tags.

"Get goin," André said. "You'll be late."

I nodded and exited the house, I felt my throat tighten up and I felt tears well in my eyes. I walked down the driveway to the gate and opened the gate. A black Lamborghini Gallardo pulled up and Phil got out of the passengers side. He scooted the chair forward and I nodded my thanks and went inside the car. I saw a man in the drivers seat and he was wearing blue jeans and a red shirt with a denim jacket. "You must be Phil's foster dad." I said.

"I am," the man said in a deep baritone voice. "My name is Ryan Opax."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Jon Peterson." I said.

Phil got back inside the car after he had slid the seat back in place and shut the door. Ryan drove off and in twenty minutes we reached the school. Phil got out and pulled the seat forward so that I could come out. I got out and thanked Ryan for the ride and he nodded. I had my bat and glove and that was all I needed for the game, besides a uniform, and maybe some batting gloves and a shin guard. The Lamborghini drove off and Phil and I walked into the school. We walked to the locker room and were met by Coach Ramirez. "Jon, I couldn't reach you." he said.

"I heard." I said.

"What number do you want?" Coach asked me.

"Twelve." I answered.

"Alright, and you Phil?"

"How high do the numbers go?" Phil asked.

"To ninety-nine." Coach answered.

"I'll take ninety-two." Phil said.

"Excellent, I'll bring you to the uniforms and get you suited up for the game."

Coach led us to a storage room in the locker room and showed us the uniforms. There were two of them, one was white with black lettering across the front of the shirt that spelt out Jasper and with a black stripe extending from the armpits down to the bottom of the shirt. From the top of the pants on the sides, if you lined them up, the lines continued down to the ankles. The other uniform was all black with golden lettering spelling out Jasper on the front. "Which ones are home and which ones are away?" I asked.

"The black ones are the home and the white ones are away." Coach Ramirez answered.

"Alright."

Coach tossed me my uniform and I checked the back and saw my number stitched in gold. Satisfied, I went into the main part of the locker room and changed out of my street clothes and into the uniform. It fit perfectly, except for the waist. I had to tighten the belt a bit in order for the belt to stay. I didn't have a baseball cap to match yet, but a teammate brought me one. It had a jay hawk holding a baseball in one of its talons on the front. I thanked him and he said no problem, then walked away. I set the cap down next to my batting helmet and I had the feeling that some of my teammates didn't appreciate me being on the team. Phil was going to be sitting on the bench to start and I was going to be starting at Center Field. I was also going to be the in the clean up position, in other words I'd be batting fourth in the line up. I put headphones in and sat settled down to listen and get ready for the game. I'd prove myself one way or another to my teammates during this game and over the course of the season. I was listening to How You Like Me Now by The Heavy when Phil came over and tapped me on my shoulder. I had previously closed my eyes, so I opened them and looked at him. He motioned for me to take my headphones out, so I complied. "Coach said that it's time to head to the field as a team." Phil said.

I nodded and stood up from where I had been sitting and put my phone and headphones into a locker. I put a lock on it and followed Phil out of the locker room. We all piled into a bus and drove to the baseball fields. Coach stood up and said, "Horton, you're playing First Base and leading off. Johnson you're playing Second Base and batting third. Ronaldo, you're playin Shortstop and batting fifth. Ramirez, you're playing Third Base and batting second. Ryan Ronaldo, you're Catcher and batting seventh. Walker, you're pitching and Severson you're DHing for him in the sixth spot. Portson, you're playing Left Field and batting eighth. Peterson, you're at Center and in the clean up spot. That leaves Anderson playing Right Field and batting ninth. Any questions?"

"I have one coach," Severson spoke up.

"What is it Severson?" Coach asked.

"Why is Peterson starting? Did his parents pay you off so that their little boy could play?" Severson asked.

I clenched my teeth in frustration and anger but I just sat there as I heard snickers. "How many Little League World Series Championships have you won?" Phil asked Severson. The snickers stopped and I looked over at Phil in surprise. "That's what I thought." Phil said when there wasn't an answer. We got to the baseball fields and I got out of the bus last. I grabbed my glove and bat and brought them to the dugout.

I put my cleats on and started stretching and preparing myself for the game. It was roughly half an hour before the game and the other team just arrived as well. Our team went through warm-ups, and then the other team went through their warm-ups. After everyone went through the warm-ups, the umpires approached the dugout and asked for the batting order. Coach Ramirez gave the order and the umps walked away satisfied. He then approached me and asked, "You alright?"

"I'm fine," I answered. "I'll just have to prove to them that you made a good choice at Center Field."

Coach smiled and patted my shoulder and said, "That's my boy, now get out on the field, we're getting ready."

"Yes, sir." I said. I then jogged out onto the field and got into my position in Center. Walker walked onto the mound and Ryan tossed him a baseball. The opposing batter came to the plate and he was a lefty. Walker reared back and threw the ball. The batter took the through for ball one. The second pitch was a swing and a miss. The third strike was belted to Center Field and I retreated to the warning track and saw that it was going to be a home run. I leapt into the air and extended my left hand and caught the ball as it went over the fence. I landed and threw the ball back towards Second. There was a loud roar from the crowd and the announcer said, "And number twelve robs Frank Jackson of a Home Run in the top of the first for the first out. Coach Ramirez looks like a genius adding this Sophomore to the roster." I glanced over at Left Field and saw Portson nodding at me with respect. Walker struck out the next batter in four pitches and the third batter grounded out. I jogged off the field with the other eight members of the team on the field and I swapped my glove for my bat. Horton drew a six-pitch walk and then stole second on the second pitch of Ramirez's at bat. Ramirez was the Coach's son. He reached on a single, but Horton didn't advance. The pitcher for the other team so far had thrown ten pitches and Johnson walked up to the plate. The pitcher was a left-handed pitcher and Johnson was a lefty as well. I got out of the dugout and got into the circle to warm-up. I placed the weight on the end of my bat and swung a couple of times. There was the sound of metal hitting the ball and I saw that Johnson had hit a single. The bases were loaded with nobody out. I took my helmet off and then put it back on. "Now batting, number twelve, Jon Peterson." the announcer said as the intro to Seven Nation Army started playing.

I walked to the plate and made a cross on the plate before I settled into my batting stance. People told me that my batting stance reminded them of Dustin Pedroia's from the Boston Red Sox. In a way they were correct, because that's whom I had based my stance off of. I took a deep breath and waited for the pitcher to throw. The pitcher received the signal from the catcher and shook his head a couple of times before he nodded. I spared a quick glance to First and saw that Johnson had a nice lead off the base. I refocused on the pitcher and twitched my bat twice before the pitcher reared back and threw the ball. Time slowed and I recognized the throw as a sliding curveball, or a slurve, it was coming right towards the bottom left corner. I lifted my left leg and drew my bat back and swung when I deemed it the perfect timing. The sound of my bat striking the ball sounded like a canon going off. I dropped my bat and casually jogged towards first base, I knew that ball wasn't coming back. "Grand Slam!" the announcer roared. "Peterson has nailed a Grand Slam on the very first pitch he sees as a Varsity player!" I got to home plate and was given high fives by the teammates I had driven in as we jogged back to the dugout. I was patted on the back and everyone in the dugout was looking at me with newfound respect.

"Nicely done." Coach Ramirez said proudly.

"Thanks coach." I said.

"Anyone know how far that went?" Horton asked.

"Over three hundred and twenty feet," Phil answered. "Jon blasted that over the Center Field wall and it came down at least another ten feet away from the wall."

I shook my head in disbelief when Phil said that, I had definitely crushed that one. Ronaldo struck out swinging in five pitches, Severson grounded out on his first pitch, and Ryan flew out to end the first inning. I traded my helmet for my baseball cap and glove and jogged back onto the field. Walker struck out the first batter and then walked the second. The third batter crushed the ball and hit it to shallow Center Field. I charged forward and dove for the ball, stretching myself out as much as I could. I caught the ball and quickly rolled onto my feet and transferred the ball to my right hand and chucked it to first base. Horton caught the ball and the runner was called out because he hasn't made it back to the bag in time. The base runner had tried to advance on the hit but I had robbed the guy of a base hit and instead had turned it into a double play. We jogged back off the field and a full inning went by without me having to do anything. My walk up song was playing as I walked up to the batters box and settled into my stance. It was still four to nothing, but now it was the bottom of the third inning. The opposing pitcher nodded his head and reared back, kicked out his leg, and threw the ball. It was a two-seam fastball out of the zone, so I took it for a ball. The catcher tossed the ball back to the mound and I tapped home plate four times and created a cross before getting back into my stance. The pitcher reared back and threw the ball again, it was another two-seamer, it was going for the upper right corner of the strike zone and I swung and made contact with the ball. I dropped my bat and sprinted to first base. The ball landed in shallow right field and rolled foul, but it was still fair. I rounded first and slid feet first into second for a lead off double. I got a decent sized lead off of second base and as the pitcher threw to Ronaldo I took off. I slid into third safely just ahead of the tag and the crowd was cheering. Ronaldo hit a fly ball out to Center Field and I tagged up on third and then sprinted towards home plate as the outfielder caught the ball. He threw the ball home and the catcher moved to block me. I jumped over the catcher and did a front flip. I landed perfectly on home plate and I was panting. I was ruled safe and I was grinning on the way to the dugout. Ronaldo was given the RBI and the Sac fly, and I was given the run and a stolen base from when I had stolen third. Coach pulled me aside and said, "Don't ever do that again!"

"Do what, sir?" I asked.

"Flip over the damn catcher!"

There were chuckles from my teammates and a couple snorts of laughter when Coach Ramirez said that. "Sorry sir," I said. "But you have to admit that was sweet."

"I don't have to admit anything." Coach said with a sigh as he turned away.

We ended up winning that game 6-1. I went 3-3 with a HR, 2B, a Single, a SB, 2R, and 4 RBI's. Walker got the win pitching 5.1 innings, 3H, 1ER, 2BB, and 4K. The last run had come from a home run by Severson in the bottom of the fifth inning. In high school baseball, we only played six innings.

I was walking next to Phil and noticed that he didn't look happy or excited about our win. "You alright?" I asked.

"What?" Phil said snapping out of his own little world. "Yeah…yeah I'm fine."

"Alright." I said skeptically.

"Don't worry about me, Jon, I'm fine." Phil said with a slight smile.

"Were your foster parents able to make it to the game?" I asked.

Phil shook his head. "No, my foster dad had work to do, and my mom well, she's off doing something." Phil looked at me with curiosity in his eyes. "What about you?" he asked. "Did your parents come to the game?"

I snorted. "Hardly, they have 'better' things to do." I said in a slightly hurt tone.

"Like what?"

"My dad believes working for my uncle's company, MECH, is the only important thing now," I sighed. "My mom, she could care less about me playing baseball."

"Ouch." Phil said with a wince.

I shrugged it off as we both got into the bus. "It doesn't matter." I said.

**Shadestalker's POV**

We all had just gotten done changing back into regular street clothing and I exited the building. I called the base as I entered an alleyway. "Shadestalker, how did the game go?" Arcee asked when she answered.

"We won, that Peterson kid really knows how to play baseball." I said. "Listen, I need a ground bridge back to base, I found out some pretty important information that I need to deliver to the team."

"The ground bridge will be there shortly," Arcee said. "Everything going alright?"

"No, I feel like I'm betraying a friend." I admitted. A ground bridge opened and I walked through it. I saw my alt mode and deactivated my holoform. I transformed and stretched. "It feels good to be back in this form." I commented.

"Back to when you said you feel like you're betraying a friend," Arcee said. "What do you mean by that?"

I sighed. "I've gotten to know Jon really well these past couple of days, and he reminds me a lot of myself." I said. "Jon has become like a little brother to me."

"Optimus isn't going to like that." Arcee said.

"What am I not going to like?" Optimus asked as he entered the room.

I saluted my commander and then repeated what I had just told Arcee, then added, "Sir I believe that it is prudent that we get Agent Fowler here right away."

"I agree with you, that way you can tell the team and Agent Fowler your findings." Optimus said.

Optimus contacted Agent Fowler and Agent Fowler asked for a ground bridge. I was pacing around the main room when the ground bridge opened and Agent Fowler walked in. "What's the important message, Prime?" he asked.

Optimus looked at me and I knelt down in front of the human. "Jon Peterson has informed me that his father is working for a company called MECH." I said.

"The MECH that attacked our convoy earlier?" Arcee asked.

I shrugged and said, "I wouldn't know, but if it is the same thing I say go while the evidence is hot."

Agent Fowler nodded and said, "I'll get a strike team formed to arrest the father and bring him in for questioning."

"There's another thing, Agent Fowler," I said. "Jon said that his father is working for his uncle."

"We need to get this man ASAP, where's the Peterson mansion?" Agent Fowler asked me.

Realization hit me that moment. "You're going to arrest him in the house aren't you?" I asked.

"Yes, as soon as I get a task force." Agent Fowler answered.

"That'll take at least four hours!" I exclaimed.

"Your point, soldier?" Agent Fowler asked looking at me, hard too.

"What if MECH sends body guards?"

"Then we'll have to use force."

"What about Jon and his mother?"

"If need be, we'll take them into questioning as well." Agent Fowler said.

I looked over at Optimus and said, "I can't believe that you're OK with this! A young, innocent, person is in harms way and you're just going to sit by and allow fleshy to arrest his entire family!"

"I am," Optimus said. "The needs of the many outweigh those of the few."

"He's just a kid, you going to arrest him too?" I demanded.

"No, but we are going to question him." Agent Fowler said trying to calm me down.

I shook my helm and said, "I'm regretting ever getting involved." I then stormed out of the room and headed towards my quarters.

**Peterson Mansion: Jon's POV**

It was around eight o'clock when my dad finally got back from work. I was sitting at a table in the main hallway waiting for him to get inside the house too. When he finally did enter the house, I stood up from me seated position, but saw that he wasn't alone. My dad had ten men with him; they were all dressed in body armor and wore masks. "What's going on?" I asked my dad.

"Nothing important, Jon," my dad said. "Go upstairs and go to bed."

"Sorry dad, but I'm not gonna do that." I said staring at my father.

My dad raised an eyebrow and looked ate questionably. "And why not?" he asked.

"Because we need to talk," I answered coldly. "And since you're never home anymore, this is the perfect time."

"Talk about what?" my father asked.

"The fact that you didn't want to go to my baseball game."

"Is that what you're upset about?" my father asked incredulously. "Trivial things like that shouldn't matter anymore, you're sixteen now Jon."

"It was still my first game on Varsity!" I said. "It was important to me. I had an excellent game, and you missed it to do what, play with your chemistry set?"

"I'm working on something with your uncle that could change the world, young man," my dad said sternly. "I hoped that you would respect that!"

"I would respect it if you were at least home sometimes," I said. "You're barely home as it is and now you bring…" I gestured at the men.

"They're here for this family's protection!" my father said taking a step forward.

"From what?" I asked. "What can possibly harm us?"

"That's none of your concern, Jonathon." my father said looking at me.

"Look, maybe I shouldn't live here if I can't be taken care of." I said.

"What do you mean?" my father asked.

"You don't remember that André quit?" I asked mockingly. "That's right, you were to concerned looking after your own interests!"

"Look young man, if you think for one second that I'm going to stand here and listen to my own son insult me, you've got another thing coming." my father warned.

"Then sit then, I'm going to continue speaking my mind until you've listened!" I shouted.

"What is it you want?" my dad asked.

"For you to actually care enough about me to at least show up to something that matters to me," I said softly. "I want you to acknowledge that I'm not a mistake of a son that you seem to always think I am. I want you to accept me for who I am." I stopped and looked up at my dad. I looked him right in the eyes and said with conviction. "I want you to accept me for who I want to be and what I am, not what you expect me to be or want me to be. I'm my own person, dad, and I'll do anything to hold onto my individuality."

"Jon," my dad said softly. "How can you not think that I don't care for you? How could you ever think that? The reason I left my other job and started working with your mother's brother was because I was concerned about what will happen in the future. I'm concerned about your future and I want to protect it."

"Whatever." I said as I turned around and walked away. Those weren't good enough reasons for me to believe that my dad actually cared about me more than his damn career.

"Where are you going?" my father asked.

"Somewhere where I can be alone and I know that I won't be bothered by trivial matters." I snarled. I headed towards the entrance for the basement and went down the stairs.

I was down in the basement and I went to the gun section of our own personal range, I didn't have to set anything up for that so that was a bonus, and grabbed my .30-06 and sighted down the scope. I zoomed in a little bit and fired. I reloaded with the bolt-action mechanism and then pushed the bolt forward, loading a new bullet into the chamber. I looked into the scope and pulled the trigger on the gun again. I felt my phone vibrate, so I discarded the empty round and put the safety on. I set my gun down and answered my phone. "Hello?" I asked.

"Jon!"

"Phil?"

"Yes, I'm calling to warn you to get out of your house," Phil said in a hurry. "They're coming for you and your family."

"What are you talking about?" I asked him. "Who's coming for us?"

"I can't tell you," Phil said. "All I can say is that I'm sorry and I didn't know that this would happen."

I felt like I had been stabbed in the gut, someone whom I had called a friend had betrayed me. "You used me," I growled. "You used me to get information on my family!"

"I didn't know they'd arrest all of you!"

"I thought you were my friend, Phil." I spat in anger and in hate. "I guess I was wrong. You're nothing but a cold hearted bastard!"

There was a sigh from the other side of the line and Phil said, "I'm sorry, Jon, I truly am. I called so that you'd avoid being arrested."

"Next time I see you, I'll break your nose." I promised. I didn't wait for a reply, I hung up. I heard the sound of a helicopter descending towards the house and I silently cursed. I had no idea if this was government, terrorist, or something totally different. But one thing I knew for sure was that I was going to stay down here and hope that if whoever came to get me was up to the challenge.

**Authors Note:**

**I'd like to thank Princess of Dreams and zrexheartz for reviewing and I'd like to thank zrexheartz for the feedback.**

**RBI- Run Batted In**

**SB- Stolen Base**

**HR- Home Run**

**K- Strikeout**

**BB- Base on Balls (Walk)**

**R- Run**

**H- Hit**

**2B- Double (Also used as short hand notation for Second Baseman (4))**

**3B- Triple (Haven't used it, future reference and short hand notation for Third Baseman (6))**

**C- Catcher (2)**

**P- Pitcher (1)**

**1B- First Baseman (3)**

**SS- Shortstop (5)**

**CF- Center Field (8)**

**LF- Left Field (7)**

**RF- Right Field (9)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Evasion

After Phil had called me and I had hung up, I brought my gun back to the rack and set it back in its place. I locked the gun cabinet and grabbed some knives that I threw. There were six knives, and I knew how to throw them accurately and quickly. I heard cursing come from upstairs and I took one knife and threw it up the stairs to hit the light switch. The knife hit its target and I held my breath as a spark spat out of the switch. The lights went out and my grandfather's training started kicking in. My breathing slowed down and I heard fighting upstairs. "What's down here!" I heard a mans voice demand.

"Go down there and find out yourself," my father spat. "You don't have a warrant! Get the hell out of my house!"

"We do have a warrant, James Peterson." a deep voice said. It sounded African American, but I couldn't be positive.

"You should still get the hell out of here!" my dad demanded. "I have a son and a wife that you're failing to consider!"

"We're taking them in for questioning as well." the deep voice said. My heart almost stopped, I hadn't done anything illegal. Why would I be brought in for questioning? Why my mother? What the hell did my dad do? "Open the door, lets see what's down there."

I stiffened and pressed myself close to the wall, quietly edging around the basement towards the gun safe. The door opened and light flooded down the stairs. I saw shadows of men outlined by the light from the hallway. They wouldn't dare try to pull out the knife that had taken out the lighting, they'd be idiots if they did. "Sir, there's been tampering with the lights." someone said.

"What do you mean?" the deep voice answered.

"There's a knife blocking the on/off switch."

"Turn on your night vision." the voice ordered.

"Yes, sir."

I finally found the gun safe and opened it. I climbed in and shut it quietly. My dad had the safe built as a safe room as well, so it extended outwards out of the house. I entered the secondary chambers that acted as the safe house and closed the door, locked it, and then jammed it with one of the larger knives I carried. I had no idea what was going on, but I did not want to find out. I kept scooting back to find the exit that would lead me to shed where we kept out dirt bikes and ATVs. I felt my phone vibrate, and I took it out. My father was calling me, but I knew better than to answer it. Instead, I smashed the phone on the ground and continued towards the shed. I got out of the tunnel system and popped the hidden door and looked around. I glanced around and saw ten men standing around the shed. I silently cursed and slowly lowered the door back into the ground as I descended back into the tunnel system. I sat down on the steps and twirled one of the knives aroundy fingers on my right hand. How long was this going to take? If they couldn't find me, would they leave and pick me up at the school tomorrow? I was contemplating a lot of different scenarios in my head when I heard the same voice that had addressed my father earlier speak above me. "It's obvious the kid isn't here, we should move out."

"Yes, sir." some other person said.

"What should we do? The General wanted the kid in for questioning' as well." another said.

"We couldn't find him, so we'll have to try some other time."

"Yes, sir."

I heard the footsteps recede and within the next five minutes the helicopter took off. I opened the batch and peered around to make sure that all of them were truly gone. I got out of the cellar and tunnel system, no one was around. I walked into the shed and sat down on an ATV. If I went to school, they'd come for me, if I stayed here, they'd come for me, if I did anything they'd come for me. I was screwed any way you sliced it. My thoughts drifted to my mother, she wasn't home, I understood her work. My dad's work I didn't understand. My mom worked for the government, what did my dad work for? My uncle? I didn't know what my uncle did, but those men my dad had brought home with him didn't seem right. There had been something odd about them. I let out a sigh of defeat and was surprised to hear the sound of a car pull up next to the shed. I heard a car door open and then shut. My heart started pumping and I wondered if it was my mom. That hope was quickly crushed when I heard a motorcycle pull up as well. "What are you doing here?" I heard, to my surprise, Phil Shade ask.

"I'm here to bring you back," a female voice answered. "But I could ask the same thing of you."

"I want to make things up to the kid."

_Kid? He's my age! _I thought.

"Optimus ordered you not to come here."

"Do you always listen to orders, 'Cee?"

There was a pause then an answer, "No, but there are things that I know what to listen to."

"I…"

"What is it?"

"I'm picking up a life form in this shed."

_What the hell is going on? _I thought. I heard footsteps approaching and I silently cursed. There wasn't anywhere to hide in here! But if Phil was out there, I had a promise to keep! I hefted one of the smaller knives and aimed right next to the door where a head would be. If I did this right the blade would stick in the wood frame of the door and startle whoever was attempting to enter. The shed door opened and a figure stepped forward. I threw a knife and the light from the moon reflected off of the blade. There was the solid smack of the blade entering the wood and the figure stumbled back and cursed in surprise. I charged forward and tackled the figure. The two of us rolled and I ended up on the bottom, but I placed the person in a triangle shoulder hold. I pulled the arm back as I pressed down on the shoulder area with my legs. "Let her go, Jon." I heard.

Rage boiled my blood and I let the person go. I looked for the source of the voice and saw Phil standing by the entrance of the shed. My jaw clenched in anger as I stood up and glared at one whom I had called friend. "Bastard!" I spat in hate.

"I didn't want this to happen!" Phil said.

"What the hell did you think was going to happen?" I snarled. I clenched both of my hands into fists.

"I thought they would just take your father in for questioning, not raid your entire house." Phil said.

"We'll guess what dip-shit, they want me for questioning and I didn't even do anything!"

"How many times can I apologize?"

"Not enough." I said coldly. The woman got up off of the ground and looked at me. She was about five foot five and looked extremely fit. I turned away and faced her. "Sorry for tackling you." I apologized.

"No problem kid, I would've done the same in your position." the woman said.

I nodded and turned back to face Phil. "As for you, get the hell off of my family's property!" I said. "I hope that I never see your lieing, cowardly face again!" I turned away once more and started to walk away.

I heard footsteps approaching me from behind and I wanted so bad to pull out a knife and stab Phil in the belly, but I restrained myself. I felt a hand on my shoulder and Phil's voice say, "I understand that you're angry with me… oomph!"

Phil didn't get a chance to finish. I had clamped down on that hand and flipped Phil over my shoulder and onto his back. I knelt down on his chest and looked into his eyes. "You can't possibly understand, you broke my trust," I said. "You think you can waltz in and try to apologize and gain it back?" I let out a humorless laugh and then continued. "You can never gain it back after what you did!" I then decked him in the face with my right hand and I felt the cartilage crackle and the bone snap. "I told you I'd break your nose." I stood up and walked inside the now empty house. I walked to my room and sat down on my bed. I turned my TV on flipped it to ESPN. SportsCenter was on and it was showing the Top10 plays of the week. I always loved watching those plays, they were mind blowing. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning I woke up at seven o'clock in the morning. I stretched and went through a small routine of push ups and crunches. At seven thirty, I grabbed a new outfit and headed to my bathroom. I showered and shaved. I went back into my room and grabbed my backpack. Making sure that I had everything I needed for the school day and baseball practice, I headed for the shed that I had hid in last night. I picked a motorcycle and brought it out of the shed. I had my motorcycle permit, so I was going to ride that to school since André had taken his Camaro back with him. I was wearing a white tee with a black tank top over it and a pair of jeans. I went back in the shed and grabbed a leather jacket and a motorcycle helmet that would encase my entire head and face. The motorcycle was a Harley Davidson XR1200X Sportster. It was black with chrome rimmed wheels and chrome exhaust pipes. I put the jacket on and zipped it up. The helmet was black and so was the leather jacket. I mounted the bike and rode out of the driveway and headed onto the highway. I rode to the school and pulled into a parking spot next to another motorcycle, Jack's motorcycle to be exact. I shut the engine off, took the keys out of the ignition, and dismounted. A black SUV pulled up behind me. I watched as the passenger's side window rolled down and a white man wearing sunglasses was revealed. In his left ear was an earpiece that you often see government agents wear when they have guns on their persona. "Jon Peterson?" the man asked in a rough voice.

"Yes?" I asked taking my helmet off.

"You need to come with us for questioning." the man said.

"What about school?" I asked.

"It's been taken care of," the man said. "We need you to get in the vehicle."

"Alright, but I ain't talkin until I get a lawyer." I said as the door behind the passenger opened.

I got in the SUV and I ended up sitting across from an African American male who was a bit on the heavy side, not really except for the beer belly, and a loosely tied tie. "Hello, son." the man said. I recognized his voice from last night. I didn't say anything, I just nodded. "So, you won't talk?" I stared out the window as the car drove out of the school parking lot. The man across from me sighed and looked at me intently. "I can pretend to understand where you're coming from or how you're feeling, but that's not my style." I kept on ignoring the man. I was going to wait until I got my lawyer. "Alright, I guess I'll wait until we get to the station."

After roughly ten minutes of driving, the SUV pulled into a police station and I was asked to get out. I complied and was escorted inside the station and into an interview room. I looked at a wall to my left that looked like it was just a mirror, but I knew better than that, it was a two way mirror. I sat down on a chair and waited until a lawyer was brought in, that was another twenty minutes, then I was ready to answer the questions. The African American man sat across from me and dropped a file on the table in front of my chair. "Jonathon Scott Peterson, age sixteen originally from Iris, Montana." the man said. I glanced to my lawyer and she nodded.

"Why am I here?" I asked.

"To answer questions."

"Who are you?"

"Agent William Fowler."

"Did I break the law, because if I did I don't know about any infractions." I said leaning back into my chair.

"Aiding and abetting a criminal." Agent Fowler said.

"My client did no such thing, he had no inclination of what his father was doing." my lawyer said.

"How can we be sure?" Agent Fowler asked.

"I'm sixteen!" I shouted. "Where's your fricken common sense! I have a clean record as you've most likely already have read!"

"We found your fingerprints on a knife that had taken out a light switch leading to your basement." Agent Fowler said folding his fingers.

"I throw that knife probably close to twenty times a day," I said. "My dad and I previously had an argument and I didn't want him following me down in the basement, so I wasn't thinking rationally."

"You're either telling me the truth or you're a very good liar."

"Take it as you will," my lawyer said. "That isn't evidence that my client aided and abetted a criminal!"

"And you don't even know if my father is a criminal!" I added.

"I'm sorry, son," Agent Fowler said. "But we do."

I got an odd feeling in my stomach when Agent Fowler said that. "What do you mean?" I asked softly.

"We had suspicions that your father worked for a company called MECH, which we have recently found out is a terrorist group based inside the US focusing on making illegal arms and selling them on the Black Marcket, and with your conformation to our undercover officer that your father works for them…" Agent Fowler paused letting me take it all in for a moment before he continued, "Placing the icing on the cake for your father's arraignment."

"What about my mother?" I asked.

"She's clean," Agent Fowler said gently. "We had our suspicions at first when your parents were seen leaving together from a building, but then your mom never stopped coming to work for the government job she has."

"Am I free to go?" I asked.

"Yes, you've answered all the questions and as far as I'm concerned you're not guilty and charges will not be persued against you."

I nodded but I was still pissed that Phil had lied to my face about who he was and had pretended to be my friend. This is what I got for letting someone in, for thinking that I actually had a friend that wasn't a gold digger for once."I kind of need a ride back to school." I said looking down at my shoes as I stood up.

Agent Fowler chuckled and replied, "One will be provided."

"Thanks." I said as I was led out of the interview room.

_An hour later _

I was sitting outside of the school on the steps looking at the oak tree when a familiar voice behind me said, "Hi, Jon."

"Get the hell away from me, Shade," I growled. "I thought I made it clear that I don't want to ever see your lying, cowardly, face again."

"I guess I deserve that, but…"

"You deserve a hell of a lot more than that!" I interrupted. "You deserve to have someone whom you called a friend lie to your face, gain your trust, and then stab you in the back."

"How do you know that hasn't happened to me?" Phil asked.

"You're a damn confidant for the Feds," I said. "You're not allowed to truely get close to someone."

"Jon…"

"Just stay away from me," I interrupted again. "For the love of all good things on this earth, stay away from me and I pray that I never see you again unless you're a changed individual."

I pulled out some headphones from a pocket in my leather jacket and plugged them into my iPod and hit play. I stood up, walked over towards my Harley, and then sat down in the leather seat. I put my helmet on and flipped the face shield down. I started the engine, backed out of my parking spot, and headed towards the highway. I needed a ride, a nice long ride to clear my thoughts. Usually baseball could do that for me, but right now I'm sure that that's where Phil was heading and I didn't want to see him unless it was absolutely necessary. I quickly accelerated to sixty-five mph and weaved in and out of traffic until I got into a lane by myself. I held the throttle where it was at and I soon entered the desert area. I got onto an exit and followed an old road. The road led to another road that looked brand new and a large structure appeared in my peripheral vision. There was a dead end sign up ahead and the road turned left. I leaned into the corner and rode past the immense rock structure. If I followed this road, I'd eventually get back to the highway that would take me home. I checked one of my mirrors and saw a black sports car following me. It looked like it had tinted windows, really tinted windows. Where had that car come from? A couple of seconds ago, I had been completely alone on the road. Then a red Aston Martin pulled out behind the black car and sped up. I pulled the throttle back and sped up to avoid the cars, hopefully. Within a couple of minutes the red Aston Martin was within a hundred feet of me. I silently cursed and changed gears. I pulled the brakes and did a U-turn as best as I could on a motorcycle going over one hundred mph and then sped past the Aston Martin and the black sports car. I heard the sound of tires screeching as they skidded on the pavement and in a desperation attempt to avoid my stalkers I went off the road and onto the desert sand.

I leaned to my right and then my left, alternating which way I leaned every ten seconds or so in order to create a dust shield that would protect me from the eyes of whoever was watching me. After about ten minutes of doing that, I got back onto the highway and checked my mirrors. To my relief, I didn't have any persuers. I slowed back down to highway speed and headed home.

I got home after twenty minutes of riding and I shut the engine off, dismounted, and led the bike back to the shed. I put the bike back in its place and took my riding gear off. I heard the sound of a car and a truck pull up towards the house, and out of curiosity I walked out of the shed. My mom got out of her red Dodge Challenger and behind her was a truck that had a black Lamborghini Gallardo strapped to it. "What's this?" I asked.

"Your new car," my mom answered with a smile. "Mister Opax was selling it so I bought it."

"Why was he selling it?" I asked as the Lambo was unloaded from the flatbed of the truck.

"Mister Opax and his family are moving, so I took their offer on the car and purchased it." my mom said cheerfully.

"Do you know about…"

"Your father?" my mom finished with a raised eyebrow. I nodded. "Unfortunately, yes I did know, Jon."

The truck driver approached and had my mom sign something and then he handed her a set of keys and got back into his truck. The truck backed out of the driveway and drove off. "What about their foster son?" I asked.

"He'll be moving in with us."

"What!" I exclaimed. "That's not a good idea mom!"

"Yes it is, we have a lot to talk about Jon," my mom said gently, yet with a stern motherly voice. "There's a lot that I have to explain to you and apologize for."

"Like what?" I asked taking a step back.

"I'll explain it to you inside the house," my mom said. "I need you to trust me, Jon."

"The last time I trusted somebody the government came and arrested dad." I said.

"Honey, I can explain things to you and hopefully answer some of your questions, but only if you come inside the house."

"Alright." I said grudgingly.

I followed my mom inside the house and into the kitchen. "Would you like anything to drink?" she asked me.

"Just some water, please." I replied.

My mom nodded and filled two cups with filtered water and sat down at the table. I sat down across from her and she handed me the other cup. "What's your first question that you'd like to ask me?" my mom asked looking at me.

"How did you already know about dad, did you get a call or something?" I asked.

"At first your father was meant to be a mole in MECH, then he stopped reporting and we figured that he had been caught." my mom said. She paused and took a sip of water before continuing, "After a couple of days your father appeared back on the radar and met me outside of a building. I asked that our picture not to be taken, but it was anyway. I talked with your father and he said that he had a better job than spying on my brother, your uncle, and that he was done. I told him that was alright but we had to get him out of where he was working and he refused saying where he was working was the best place to be. I started having my suspicions and asked the agency I control to get to know you."

"Why get to know me?" I asked.

"I recently have gone over some of your father's and my own work from years past and noticed that some of our calculations were off from our final drafts," my mom said looking at me as I took a drink of water. "I looked at the completed thing and saw something that hadn't caught my eye before, a ten year olds hand writing."

I set my cup down and looked at my mom, "I was just trying to help." I said.

"I understand that, but you did a math problem that people have been trying to answer and solve for almost four decades in probably a matter of ten minutes."

"Seven minutes, but I still don't understand how I factor into all of this." I said.

"I had a gut feeling that my brother would try to recruit you to join MECH and work along side him and your father," my mom said. "Am I not correct?"

"No, you're spot on." I said.

"So that's why I had Ryan Opax volunteer for the mission, and when he couldn't do it, his foster son, Phil Shade, stepped up to the plate and said that he'd take the shot."

"Oh." I said. That was all I could think to say at the moment. The new information my mom had just told me was circulating throughout my brain. "So this Agent Fowler guy that interrogated me, was that meant to happen as well?" I asked after a couple of minutes.

My mom shook her head, "No," she answered. "Since you weren't at the house when they arrested your father, we weren't sure if you were a part of MECH or not. If you had been at the house that night, all of this would've been explained to you that night instead of this afternoon."

"I was at the house." I said softly."

"Why didn't you show yourself?" my mother asked.

"I didn't know who the people that barged through the door were, I was in the basement at the time." I said. I took a sip of water and proceeded to tell her about my argument with dad, Phil's phone call, how I was in the basement and what I did, and how I hid from the people. I finally reached the end and asked, "When Agent Fowler said that the general wanted me in for questioning and you in as well, what did he really mean?"

"Agent Fowler meant that the general wanted to talk to you before I explained everything to you." my mom said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"The general is a friend of mine and wanted to make sure that you were alright and not too shaken up about being 'arrested'," my mom said. "And as for me being wanted for questioning that was to get your father to believe that I was guilty to a sort as well."

"Who does Agent Fowler listen to?" I asked.

"The general."

"And who does the general listen to?"

"The director."

"Who's the director and who do they listen to?"

"I'm the director now and I listen only to the President of the United States of America." my mom said.

"So you're actually an agent of some sort?" I asked in astonishment.

"No, just the director of agents." my mom replied with a small smile. "My assistant is Andrew OcConnel."

"André?" I asked in shock.

"Yes." my mom said still smiling.

"So you're busy running an agency that combats a terrorist group run by your own brother, and I'm to have a foster brother who I have to learn how to trust again." I said.

"Now you're getting it," my mom said getting up from the table. "Andrew said that he'll be coming back tomorrow morning and that it'll be nice to see you again. In the meantime Jon, I want you to go outside and talk to Phil, he should be here in five minutes, give or take a couple of minutes."

"Yes mom." I said standing up from the table and going towards the door.

"And Jon?"

"Yes mom?" I asked.

"Be sure not to faint or run when you see him for the first time."

"What?"

"Get outside!"

"What did you mean first!" I demanded.

"Just go out there and find out for yourself!"

I winced and went outside. "What does she mean, don't faint or run?" I mused. "I've already seen him."

"Have you?"

"Phil?" I asked looking for him.

"In here, but not here."

The voice sounded like it was coming from the car. "Very funny, Phil," I said. "You're in the car, get out and I'll apologize for breaking your nose."

There was an odd sound that I don't think that I will ever be able to describe to you in my lifetime and my eyes widened in shock as the Lamborghini Gallardo transformed into a giant metal robot that stood at least twenty-five feet high. "You didn't break my nose." the robot said in Phil's voice.

**Authors Note:**

**Jon's world has been thrown upside down, his mom revealed things to him, now his ex-best friend is a robot! Stay tuned. **

**optoclaw, thanks for the follow and favorite, and the review. **

**Princess of Dreams and zrexheartz I thank you both for your reviews they mean a lot. zrexheartz I appreciate the input that you've given me**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Explanations and New Friendships, Some Renewed

I stared up at the giant metal robot in utter shock, who or what could've made this? I started to feel a little bit queasy and I placed my hands on my thighs and bent over. "You alright, Jon?" the robot asked in Jon's voice.

I looked up and saw that the robot was looking at me with concern. I started taking in the details of the face and saw that it was a grayish color with blue eyes. The entire body was black and the backs of the legs had the wheels from the Lamborghini. The doors formed some sort of wings on the back of the robot and I noticed that on the face, just where the cheeks are, were endings of metal plates. I straightened up and looked around and then I thought I felt better. "Nope." I said as I took a step. The ground rushed up to meet me and the next thing I knew, I was sitting on an ATV out in the baseball fields. I looked around and gave a shout of surprise when I saw a black robot next to me. "You're real." I muttered.

"As real as you are." the robot said in Phil's voice.

"What are you?" I asked.

"I am an Autonomous Robotic Organism from the planet Cybertron," the robot said with a smile. "Autobot for short."

"So you're an alien?" I asked. "Why are you in my life?"

"Yes I'm what you'd consider an alien," the robot replied. "I'm in your life because the Director wanted me to scout you out and see if MECH would approach you."

"I got that, but how can you be Phil Shade when you're that?" I asked gesturing at it.

There was a streak of light and Phil appeared. "This is how." he said and then disappeared in another flash of light. "Holoform." the robot said next to me.

I shook my head and rubbed my temples. "I still can't really forgive you for betraying my trust like that." I said.

"I can respect that." the robot said.

"What's your actual name so I don't call you Phil?" I asked looking over at it. "And random question, do you have a gender?"

The robot raised an eyebrow at the last question but answered anyway. "My designation is Shadestalker and my gender, as you call it, is a mech."

I frowned. "I'm confused," I said. "What's the difference between MECH and mech?"

"MECH is a company and I am not a femme, so that makes me a mech." Shadestalker said. "What gender are you?"

That question took me back a bit. "I'm a male." I answered.

"A mech is a male." Shadestalker said.

"This is so confusing!" I groaned.

"Just don't think about it."

"Easy for you to say." I grumbled.

Shadestalker chuckled and replied, "Trust me kid, there's a lot that you can avoid thinking about if you don't think about it."

"Why are you at my house?"

"I'm your guardian."

"My what?" I asked, surprised.

"Your guardian," Shadestalker repeated. "I'm here to make sure that you're safe."

I frowned and looked away from the alien robot and gazed at the horizon. "Why do I need you to protect me?" I asked.

"Earlier today, were you not followed my a red Aston Martin and a black sportscar with heavily tinted windows?" Shadestalker asked.

"I was." I replied, surprised that he knew that. "But how do you know that?"

"That big rock formation that you passed before you noticed you were being followed, remember that place?" I nodded and Shadestalker continued, "That's the Autobot base and we were concerned when we saw that a vehicle was approaching us and it was not our liaison or fellow Autobots."

"Alright, but why guard me and if my mom's the director of some government agency, why not have them protect me?" I asked.

"Good questions," Shadestalker said. "The two vehicles following you were Decepticons and the agents that your mom is in charge of have other affairs they need to look after."

"What are Decepticons?" I asked looking back at the black Autobot.

"Cybertronians hellbent on either conquering this world and enslaving mankind, or destroying this planet. They're also who we Autobots are at war with."

"Why are you at war?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"That is a question that I cannot answer, I was a gladiator in the Pits of Kaon before the war broke out on Cybertron." Shadestalker answered and I thought I could detect a hint of anger in his voice.

"Gladiator?"

"It was my caste," Shadestalker said bitterly. "All Cybertronians were either born into castes or placed into them. What was the main underlying of the war I guess would be the Cons wanted to get rid of the caste system."

"That doesn't sound so bad, why fight that?"

"In war you'll often find that sparks will be corrupted," Shadestalker said sadly. His wings dropped and I could sense his sadness. "Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, took it a step too far and started slaughtering innocents. Optimus Prime, then Orion Pax, helped found the Autobots to fight against Megatron's tyranny."

"Orion Pax…" I said rolling the name off my tongue. I leaned back on the ATV as a realization struck me. "Orion Pax was Ryan Opax, wasn't he?" I asked looking at Shadestalker.

"Yes, I needed a foster parent figure to help sell the deception and Optimus Prime agreed to help out." Shadestalker replied with a nod.

"So what now?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Shadestalker asked looking over at me.

I looked over at him and answered, "I know of your existence, you practically revealed it to me. What's to stop the Decepticons from thinking that because I'm somehow associated with you that I can be used to hurt you?"

"That's why I'm your guardian and you're my charge," Shadestalker said. "So that hopefully doesn't happen."

"I'm not the only teenager to know about you and the war, am I?" I asked after a couple of minutes of silence. "And I know that you're sending a live feed back to your base of operations. You'd make a terrible spy! The red recording light is on."

"Umm…Jjjooon iits not that, that we don't trust…" Shadestalker stuttered.

"Trust me?" I finished. "It's just that you're telling me things that are completely classified and I'm a teenager. Yet I have a nagging suspicion that there are at least two others who are involved with you."

"Scrap!" Shadestalker said. "How smart are you?"

"Smart enough to know that whatever you run on, you're running low on whatever it is," I replied. "Smart enough to have graduated from high school by now if my parents had chosen to not have had me homeschooled. Smart enough to know that the live camera feed that you're doing can be hacked into by me in less than two point three seconds."

Shadestalker whistled and shook his head. "Alright, if you're so intelligent who is it that's in on the conspiracy?" he asked.

"Miko Nakadai and either Jack Darby or Rafael Esquivel." I replied. Shadestalker's mouth unhinged and he looked at me in utter shock. I raised an eyebrow and looked at where I thought the camera was. "It's not that hard to figure out, maybe all three of them know. Jack's science fair project was some wacky thing from hell, Miko's was literally another planet that she admitted to being Cybertron, and Rafael, he's the most difficult one." I paused and thought back to times when I had seen Rafael Esquivel. I couldn't really think of anything out of the ordinary with that kid, besides the car he always rode in. "And Rafael, although this sounds weird, I don't think that his family can afford a custom made muscle car with those type of doors and custom paint job. It seems that with you Cybertronians, as Shadestalker has called your species, likes to be flashy, likes to stick out while blending in. All I can really say is don't interfere with my life again please."

"Umm, were you talking to me or to yourself?" Shadestalker asked.

"Stop pretending the camera isn't rolling!" I said.

Shadestalker sighed and said, "Alright." He seemed to then be listening to someone else and then looked at me and asked seriously, "Would you like to go to the base?"

I thought about it for a while, weighing all of the pros and cons of the choice. There were always a thousand or more different scenarios that played out inside my head sometimes. Finally I decided on my decision. I looked up at Shadestalker and answered, "I would be honored to see your base."

"Then tell your mother where you're going and then we'll be on our way." Shadestalker said.

I nodded and started the ATV. I rode the ATV to the house and then walked inside. My mom was sitting down at the table looking at something on her phone when I walked in. "What is it, Jon?" she asked.

"How did you know I was going to tell you something?" I asked.

"Mothers intuition." my mom replied with a slight smile.

"Right," I said slowly then resumed talking at a normal pace. "What did you listen to?"

"Nothing really, just watched you faint when you saw him." my mom said with barely contained glee.

My cheeks burned with embarrassment, I looked away from my mom and out the window. "It was a big shock, what else could've happened?" I asked.

"Well, you could've just stood there and said, 'Damn your a robot.' or you could've said a lot of other things." my mom pointed out with a big smile.

"That's not exactly helping." I said.

"Is it supposed to?" my mom asked cocking her head to one side.

"Not really," I said. "Shadestalker asked me if I would like to go see the…"

"Base and you were wondering if it was alright if you could go." my mom finished.

"How do you do that!" I demanded. It was cool, yet creepy when my mom did that.

"It only makes sense since he's your guardian." my mom said ignoring my earlier statement.

"So you had already preapproved this?" I asked.

"Bingo." my mom said with a wink.

"Did you ask him to be my guardian?" I asked.

My mom shook her head. "No not at first, I was contacted by Optimus Prime earlier today about an hour ago saying that a motorcycle with a teenaged boy was being followed my Decepticons," my mom said. "When I asked him how he knew, he replied that they had picked up a motorcycle approaching their base of operations. They zoomed in in the plates and sent them to me. I was surprised when I saw that the plates were registered under my name. I then knew that only you could've been riding the Harley. I asked the Autobots to help you out, though they didn't know who you were at the time, but they said that the situation had already been handled and that you had shaken off your pursuers. I then revealed to Optimus that you were my son, and he proposed to have Shadestalker become your guardian, I agreed."

"So you think that it's a good idea for me to get caught up in this war?" I asked.

"Better to have a soldier on your side than to get killed or captured by the Decepticons." my mother said forming a steeple with her fingers.

"You're starting to sound like André." I said with a small smile.

"It rubs off on you eventually," my mom said smiling back. "You'll get used to it. Get going, you don't want to keep Shadestalker waiting."

"Will you be here when I get back?" I asked.

"I think so," answered my mom. "Unless something comes up."

"I'll see you later then." I said.

"Bye, be safe," my mom said. "I love you, Jon."

"I have Shadestalker to protect me, I'll be fine," I said. "I love you too, mom." I walked outside and Shadestalker was waiting for me.

"Ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be." I replied.

"Good answer." Shadestalker said with a smile. He transformed back into the black Lamborghini Gallardo and I opened the passenger's side door and got in.

"Does this feel weird to you at all?" I asked.

"What?" Shadestalker asked back as he drove down the driveway.

"Another living thing being inside of you." I said.

"Not really, it's a bit awkward now that you've mentioned it," Shadestalker said. "But that'll eventually pass I think."

"Do you have a shortened version of your name, I don't want to call you Shadestalker all the time." I stated.

"Why, Jon isn't your full name?" Shadestalker asked.

"No, it's Jonathon, Jon for short." I answered. "Do you go by anything to shorten your name?"

"Sometimes, but you'll have to think of it." Shadestalker said.

"It's either Shade or Stalker," I said. "I'm going with Shade."

"There you go, you got the correct answer." Shade said as he drove. "Was that so difficult?" he asked.

"Not really," I said. "How long until we get to the base?"

"Five minutes, tops." Shade answered.

After five minutes, the two of us approached the giant rock structure that I had seen earlier today. Instead of turning and following the road, Shadestalker went straight and I briefly thought we were going to crash into the side of the rock. A tunnel appeared and Shade drove us inside. I was amazed at what I saw when Shade came to a complete stop. I undid the seatbelt and got out of his car form. Shade transformed behind me and I heard, as well as felt, footsteps approaching. I turned towards the sound and saw a robot that was red and blue walking next to another robot that was white, orange, and orange lines on the sides of its arms looking like heartbeats on a monitor. The two Autobots had electric blue eyes, just like Shade, and the two of them stopped when they saw Shade and me.

"Shadestalker, I see that he was willing to come with you." the red and blue bot said in a deep baritone voice. My forehead creased when I heard that voice, I had heard it somewhere before. My eyes widened and I remembered that this was "Ryan Opax" or Orion Pax, now Optimus Prime.

"Yes sir, Jon did want to come," Shade said. "In fact he was quite eager."

The other robot snorted and I looked closely at it again. The lines on the arms started to make a little bit of sense when I saw what looked like a med bay. "You're a doctor, aren't you?" I asked the robot.

The white and orange robot blinked in surprise and then answered in a gruff voice, "Why, yes I am. In fact, I'm a medic."

"How did you figure that out?" the red and blue bot asked.

"I'll answer that in a second, but first since you know my name, may I know yours?" I asked.

"I am Optimus Prime," the red and blue bot said confirming my hunch. "Ratchet is our medic."

"Nice to formally meet you all," I said. "To answer your question, Optimus, I deduced that he was a medic by the paint job on his arms. They resemble a heartbeat, and, if I'm not mistaken, that's a medical bay back there."

"You are correct." Ratchet said.

"Would anyone like to tell me why I had two Decepticons following me today while I was riding my motorcycle?" I asked.

"That we do not know," Optimus said. "What we do know is that the Decepticons are going through great lengths to try and win this war."

"I don't see why they would want me for that." I said.

"The director revealed a startling secret," Optimus said looking down at me.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," I interrupted. "But is there someway we could at least be eye level?" Optimus extended his hand and I climbed onto it. He walked forward a couple of steps and then placed me on a landing. "Thanks." I said.

Optimus nodded and then continued talking, "The secret was that you were the one that made the ray gun successful. You were the one human that was able to solve the energy problem with that weapon. You were also the only human to create a successful new metal element that can conduct electricity, store it, be molded into any shape, and never loose its edge once sharpened."

"My parents did that." I said.

"His heart rate is rising," Ratchet said. "Slightly, just enough to notice a difference."

"Let me rephrase that then," I said. "My parents did all the hard work. I was ten when I did the ray gun, I didn't know what I was doing! I saw the equation was wrong so I fixed it! The equation to turn titanium into cortosisium was wrong, so I fixed that as well! I was twelve when I did that! Another property of cortosisium is that it's nearly indestructible. The only thing that can destroy it is a nuclear blast."

"The Decepticons must have figured that out," Ratchet said. "That explains why they were chasing you earlier today."

"That could be, my old friend," Optimus said thoughtfully. "Starscream is very desperate indeed if he is resorting to trying to kidnap humans."

"Will the Decepticons try it again?" I asked. "Will they go after those I care about to draw me out?"

"They might." Optimus said.

I nodded once and looked away, my mind working a mile a second. "Who's protecting my mother then?" I asked.

"I am, when she's home and you're home I'm protecting the both of you." Shade said.

"What about when she isn't home?" I asked.

"She's the head of a secret agency, I'm sure that she has protection." Shade said.

I let a breath escape my nostrils in a sigh and moved on with the fact. I leaned forward on the bars that were rung around the landing I was on, and I couldn't help but wonder what I had gotten myself into. I lifted my head up when I heard the sound of two cars and a motorcycle coming down the tunnel of the entrance to the base. Jack's motorcycle pulled in with him riding it, so I knew that I was correct in one of my assumptions. The other two were the custom made muscle car with the black and yellow paint job and a green military grade SUV. The car doors opened and Miko Nakadai got out of the SUV, and Rafael Esquivel got out of the muscle car. Jack dismounted the motorcycle and all three vehicles transformed. The motorcycle transformed into a feminine looking robot with a blue body and pink wrist things, knee things, and things around her face. I noticed that Optimus had a spike at the top of his forehead as well as the blue bot. The muscle car transformed into a youthful looking robot that was slightly shorter than Shadestalker and its eyes seemed big with interest at every aspect of life. The SUV transformed into a bulky green bot. If I were a robot, I wouldn't want to mess with it. I assumed that they were all "males" with the exception of the motorcycle who was definitely a female.

"Jon?" Jack asked in surprise when he saw me.

"Sup?" I called back. I also noticed that besides Optimus, Ratchet, and the green bot, the others had variations of wings on their backs.

"Jon Peterson!" Miko called. "Totally wicked!"

I looked at Shade and he shrugged. "Let me introduce the rest of Team Prime," Optimus said. "Arcee is the femme and Jack's partner and guardian. Bumblebee is our scout and Rafael's guardian. Bulkhead is Miko's guardian."

"Nice to meet you all," I said. I looked at Arcee and said, "You for the second time, I think."

"You're correct." Arcee said in the same voice of the woman who had accompanied Shade the night my father had been arrested.

"What?" Jack asked in surprise.

"Shadestalker went to go apologize to Jon," Arcee said. "Optimus had ordered against that and I went after him to bring him back."

"I accidentally had tackled Arcee's holoform." I added seeing the looks of confusion on the other kids' faces.

After everyone was settled in, Shade gave me a tour of the base. It was interesting to find out that this had once been a missile silo. "Jon?" Shade asked.

"Hmm?"

"What is the purpose of the cortosisium metal?" Shade asked me.

I stopped walking and pondered the question. There were many purposes for the metal, but the original purpose I had no idea about. "Truthfully, I don't know the original purpose of the metal," I said eventually. "What it's mainly used for is conducting electricity in batteries and in wires, since it can hold the electricity. Another use is to make ammunition and knives, utensils as well. Other than that, I do not know."

"Oh," Shade said. "I guess I fully don't understand."

"Sorry," I said. We resumed walking and a thought hit me. I looked up at my guardian and asked, "If you're fighting a war, where're your weapons?"

"We come armed." Shade said with a smile.

"What?" I asked. "I guess now I don't understand."

Shade knelt down and lowered his hand. I climbed on and he straightened up. He walked us to a room and then set me down on an observation platform. He turned around and looked at me. "What I mean by being armed is, is that we can transform our hands into guns." Shade said. He then demonstrated and aimed at a target. I assumed that this was a training room of some sorts. He fired and a blue shot flew from the gun.

"What's the ammo?" I asked.

"Energon."

"What do you guys eat?"

"Energon."

"So this Energon stuff is pretty important to your species?"

"Yes, it's our lifeblood," Shade said solemnly. "Without it our sparks wouldn't be able to beat, we wouldn't be able to live, to fight, or to shoot. It's essential to almost everything, maybe even everything."

"Why waist this Energon substance as ammunition if you could use a bow?" I asked.

"There isn't a metal strong enough to be used as a bow," Shade said. "Not to mention we Cybertronians haven't used bows since before the first Golden Age, before this planet saw its first humans."

"Cortosisium is strong enough to withstand the pull back of the string," I said thoughtfully. "Some type of cable would have to be used as the string and I'm sure you could find something to make your own arrows with."

"Why would I use the bow?" Shade asked.

"Conserve Energon," I answered. "If the Decepticons are fighting a war with you guys, they'll need a hell of a lot more Energon than you. You'd only have to use the Energon to sustain your energy levels instead of ammunition levels and energy levels. You remove a variable from the equation and the other variable grows larger."

"So I'll run longer." Shade summarized.

"You'll be more efficient." I said looking Shade up and down, carefully taking in measurements in my head. "What would your drawback weight be, a ton?" I asked.

"Probably under a ton, close to seven hundred pounds I'm guessing." Shade said.

"Hmm." I said thoughtfully once more.

"What?" Shade asked.

"If you were able to use a bow and arrow, you'd also be able to be stealthier," I said. "I'm assuming stalker was added to your name for a reason, if you had just originally been called Shade." He had told me earlier during the tour that he had originally been named Shade, but in the gladiator Pits of Kaon, he got the name Shadestalker.

"I was stealthy, but I don't see what you're trying to get at."

"You'll be able to take down more Decepticons without them noticing where you're firing from, because you'd be able to move and keep firing."

"I can do that already."

"But once you use that ammo, you can't get it back," I pointed out. "With a bow and arrow, you'd be able to retrieve the arrows."

Shade opened his mouth to say something and then he closed it. I waited for his response, but Shade just seemed lost in thought. Finally, he looked down at me and asked, "How would we make a bow?"

"That I'd have to work on." I answered.

"Optimus said that cortosisium could be molded into any shape, could we mold it into the shape of a bow?" Shade asked.

"There are different bow styles," I answered holding my chin with my right hand. "There's a compound bow, longbow, short bow, recurve bow, composite bow, crossbow, reflex bow, and a self bow."

"Which one is the best to you?"

"Well, for me, there are three options; the recurve, longbow, and the compound." I said.

"Why is that?"

"Out of those three, they offer the most velocity behind the arrow fired and with a recurve or a longbow you'd be able to put an edge on the ends," I said. "If you want the most efficient bow that'll give you the most velocity, go with a compound bow."

"How much velocity would my bow put out?"

I quickly took the measurements from my head and did an equation to do the math to figure it out. "If your draw back length is roughly one hundred and twenty-five point six eight inches, the draw weight is seven hundred pounds, the arrow weighs roughly a pound, and the IBO speed is around six thousand feet per second, your velocity would approximately be three thousand seven hundred and eighty-three point three three feet per second." I said.

"Wow," Shade said shaking his head in amazement. "You're really good at figuring that stuff out."

"Thanks, but how fast does your Energon travel once shot?" I asked.

"Probably close to five thousand feet per second." Shade answered.

"The thing is, I'll have to do some conversions from my size to your size to approximate your things."

"Alright, won't the calculations be off then?"

"They'll be off a little bit, you're roughly four times my size, so if I take all of my measurements and multiply them by four, I should end up with approximations of your measurements," I said. "Now the matter of what style bow do you want comes into play."

"Would I be able to use Cybertronian technology with the bow?" Shade asked.

"Like what?" I asked back.

"Being able to shrink the bow down in size so that it would be easier to carry, yet when I need it I could just transform it to its full size." Shade said.

"I think that you might be able to, but you'd have to make the bow so that you could implant the technology," I said. "You'd also need to be present in order to test it out."

"I like the idea, but what should I use for arrows?"

"We humans use a carbon fiber to make our arrows, you'd need metal or something of that sort," I said. "Do you have any scrap metal?"

"Quite a bit actually," Shade acknowledged. "I should go and take you home."

"Why?" I asked.

"It's getting late," Shade said. "And your mom just left me a message asking me to take you home so you could get something to eat."

"Shall we go?" I asked gesturing towards the door.

"We shall." Shade said with a chuckle. He held out his hand and I jumped on. He walked us out to the main room and we said goodbye to everyone. Shade transformed with me in his hand, and to tell you the truth I was rattled when that happened. I was in the passengers seat and Shade drove out of the base.

"Can we listen to music, or is that not allowed?" I asked.

"We can listen to music," Shade answered with a chuckle. "Bulkhead and Miko do it all the time."

"Miko's not one for following the rules." I pointed out.

"True, but as far as I know it doesn't go against any regulations."

"Turn on the radio then." I said.

Shade complied and flipped to a rock station and "Coming Down" by Five Finger Death Punch started playing. As I listened to the song, I realized how much that I could relate to the song now. I couldn't be what my dad wanted me to be, I wanted to be myself and play baseball. I looked out the window and Shade must've realized that something was bothering me because he asked, "You alright, kid?"

"The song just reminds me a lot of arguments I had with my dad about playing baseball," I said. "He wanted me to just take my diploma and move on to college, but I had refused. My dad was furious and refused to talk to me for three days."

"Ouch," Shade said. "That must've been hard."

"Not really," I said with a shake of my head. "André was there to give me the support I needed and my mom was there as well."

The song ended and the song "Let it Die" by Ozzy Osbourne started to play. Shade and I arrived home just as that song finished. "Here we are." Shade said.

"Why don't you come inside and I'll show you the bow types I have and see which one you like the best." I suggested.

"Alright, your mother won't mind?"

"I don't think so, she'll just be glad that I'm not alone." I said.

Shade activated his holoform and the two of us walked inside the house. My mom was in the kitchen and had her back turned to us. "Hey, mom." I greeted.

"How was the base?" my mom asked.

"Alright, I met everyone else that's here and Shade gave me a tour of the place."

"How do tacos sound for dinner?"

"Great!"

"Can holoforms eat human food?" my mom asked turning around.

"We can, it gives us an extra boost of energy to our Energon levels, but how did you know I was in here?" Shade said.

"Security cameras." my mom said simply.

"Oh," Shade and I said together.

"Is it alright if Shade and I go in the basement?" I asked.

"Go ahead, be safe."

"I will be." I said.

I led Shade to the basement and then down the basement stairs to the ranges. I walked over to where my bows hung on the wall and took the longbow and recurve bow off the wall and set them on the table that was next to the wall. I then grabbed my compound bow off the wall and set that next to the other two bows on the table. I turned my attention to Shade's holoform and asked, "Which one do you like better?"

Shade walked forward and looked at the three bows. "I like this one." he said pointing to the longbow.

"It's my favorite too," I said. "Would you like me to demonstrate how to shoot it?"

"Just shoot a shot and I think that I can pick it up." Shade said.

"Alright." I said. I picked up the longbow and knocked an arrow to the string. I got into a good stance; feet shoulder width apart, arm straight out with no bend in my wrist or elbow, straight back, and I held the arrow in between my right index and middle fingertips, curling them both at the first knuckle joint. I drew the arrow back to my release point, which was where my thumb touched the corner of my mouth, and I sighted down the shaft of the arrow. I kept the arrow balanced on the bow by holding it on the handle with my left index finger. I found where I wanted to have the arrow hit, took my left index finger off the arrow, released the string, and followed through to my ear. The arrow thudded into the target's bull's-eye, dead center. I turned around and held the bow out to Shade's holoform and said, "Your turn."

Shade took the longbow and I stepped back behind the line of fire. Shade got into a mirror image stance of mine and took an arrow off of the table next to him. He knocked it easy enough and did everything as I had done. Everything he did with my longbow was exactly like I had done; it was creepy in a way that he could mimic my movements like that. He pulled back, released, and followed through. His arrow thudded into my arrow and he pulled off the Robin Hood shot. Shade set the bow back on the table and looked at me. "Easy enough," he said. "I don't see why you thought I'd have difficulty with it."

"Uhhhh…" was all I could manage to get out. Shade had just pulled off the hardest shot in all of archery and acted like it was nothing. "You sure you haven't done this before?" I managed to ask in disbelief. Shade only chuckled.

**Authors Note:**

**Thank you to optoclaw for the review. I'm going to start doing theme songs for chapters, if you have any good classic rock songs, modern rock songs, blues, anything, except for country, I'm open to it. PM me or leave a review on a suggestion for a chapter theme song.**

**This chapter's theme **

**"Coming Down" by Five Finger Death Punch**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Shadows

A couple of days had passed by now and some interesting things have happened. Bumblebee was controlled by the supposedly dead leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and for baseball I had two home runs in a single game. Now it was a relaxing day with everyone at the base when Ratchet picked up something on his monitor. "What is it, Ratchet?" I asked, curious at what the disturbance was when I heard his startled grunt. The other three humans were playing video games in our designated area.

Optimus walked behind the medic and Ratchet said, "I had hoped that my growing expertise on the subject would remain purely academic but though faint, this is clearly a Dark Energon signature, and it's moving fast."

"Megatron." Optimus rumbled.

Arcee and Bulkhead were drawn into the conversation as they walked towards their Prime and medic. "Where did he find more of the bad stuff?" Arcee asked.

"What's he gonna do with it?" Bulkhead asked gesturing towards the ceiling. "Recruit another army of the undead?"

Miko quickly sat up in her chair and said excitedly, "Zombicons!"

I looked over at her quickly but was surprised when Optimus said, "We cannot rule out the possibility." I turned my attention back to Optimus and Ratchet, noticing that Shade had now joined the group of Autobots. "Especially since Megatron seems to be heading to a familiar sight."

I was extremely confused on the subject here, how could there be such a thing as reanimating the dead? That to me seemed impossible! The Autobots all gathered around the ground bridge, with Ratchet at the controls and Optimus issuing final statements. "Megatron has barely emerged from stasis and it seems that he's already making up for lost time." the Prime said. "Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Shadestalker, Ratchet, prepare to roll out."

"Me?" Ratchet asked in surprise as the others walked towards the ground bridge entrance, except for Shade.

Shade walked over to me and said, "Hopefully we'll be back in time for dinner."

"It's a Saturday, I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere." I said.

"Make sure she," Shade said emphasizing Miko. "Doesn't try to do anything funny."

I frowned and was about to ask what he meant when Optimus said, "Shadestalker, we are waiting."

"Sorry, sir," Shade said heading towards the ground bridge. "I was going over a couple of things with my charge."

"Understood." Optimus said. All the bots, besides Arcee transformed and drove through the ground bridge.

I turned and saw Miko get up and run after them, followed by Jack and Raf. That must've been what Shade had meant! I hurtled the bars and dropped ten feet to the floor below and raced after the other humans. They ran into the ground bridge and I cursed silently to myself as I followed. I caught up to them just as Jack got a hold of Miko. "Not safe!" the raven haired boy said.

"I am not about to miss my first Zombiecon throw down!" Miko retorted shaking Jack off and racing through the remainder of the tunnel.

Jack, Raf, and I chased after her and followed her as she climbed the top of a rock formation. "That's not Megatron!" Bulkhead said in surprise.

I saw a tall grey robot holding his arms out standing over another pile of rubble. "Rise Skyquake!" it commanded in a high irritable voice. "Rise!"

"That's an annoying voice." I muttered. The pile of rubble the mech was facing started to rumble and I narrowed my eyes in preparation.

"Lets see some fight of the living dead already!" Miko exclaimed.

"Miko, what were you thinking?" Jack demanded as he knelt down next to the crazed girl.

"She wasn't." Raf said as he knelt next to Jack.

"I agree fully with Raf on that one." I said as I knelt on the other side of Miko.

"Hey, I totally missed out last time," Miko said. "This could be my only chance to take some snaps." She then reached for her phone, but was surprised when she couldn't find it. "My cell phone I must've dropped it back at base!" she said standing up.

"Starscream!" I heard Optimus say. I couldn't help but turn my attention back to that. "Stand down."

The grey mech turned around and snarled, "Optimus! You stand down." This Starscream then transformed his left hand into a rocket and aimed it at the Autobots, then fired it. "You cannot harm my while Dark Energon flows through my veins!"

Optimus aimed his gun at Starscream after coming out from behind a rock he had gotten behind for shelter and shot at Starscream. Starscream bent over in pain as his right arm was blasted off by Optimus' shot. I would've laughed if I hadn't been in a life or death situation at the moment if I were to be noticed by the Decepticon.

"Urgh! I can't believe that you made me lose my phone!" Miko screamed at us.

"Uh, how is this my fault?" Jack asked.

"You four, into our ground bridge!" Ratchet yelled. "Now!"

"Come on!" Jack said grabbing Miko.

"Aww!" she complained.

We walked into the ground bridge and then there was an explosion. I felt myself get flung back and thrown against a rock. I rolled onto the ground and grunted in pain.

"You guys ok?" Jack asked us.

"Yeah, I think so." Raf replied.

"I could be better," I said. "Lets see how the big guys are feeling."

The Autobots got up and Bulkhead asked, "What just happened?"

"I can't be certain," Ratchet replied. "But if two ground bridges sent to the same coordinates crossed streams the feedback could've triggered a system overload."

"Could!" Miko said. "Hello? More like totally did!"

I noticed that something was off with this, I was seeing the world in a shadow type, almost as if I was trapped in a shadow zone. "The kids made it through, right?" Bulkhead asked.

"Huh?" Raf asked.

"What's he talking about?" Jack asked.

Miko started striding forward and I looked over at Shade and bent down and picked up a rock. "Bulkhead, we're right here!" Miko said.

"Arcee, did the children make it safely back to base?" Optimus asked.

"Negative, you don't see them?" Arcee's voice came back over the com unit.

"Negative, no sign." Ratchet said.

Miko walked over to Bulkhead and said exasperatedly, "What, no sign? Seriously Bulk?" She screamed as I threw my rock at Shade. Bulkhead walked through her as my rock passed through Shade's thigh.

I glanced over at Raf and saw that he was deep in thought. "He went right through you." Jack said astonished as he caught Miko, "We're not alive."

Raf clasped Jack and said, "I don't wanna be a ghost."

"Wait, how can we still touch each other?" Jack asked.

The Autobots started to walk away and I whistled. The other three looked at me and I tilted my head signaling to follow the Autobots. "Ratchet, could the children have been transported onto the Nemesis instead?" Optimus asked.

"Not likely," Ratchet answered. "If Starscream didn't arrive at our base, the most likely explanation is a dislocation. The children may simply have been bridged to an unintended destination."

"Another place, but in the same place." Raf said.

"What…what do you mean?" Jack asked.

"We're probably in a different dimension," Raf answered. "Some kind of alternate reality, a shadow zone."

"Need alert." Miko said.

"Raf's right," I said. "Look around, isn't the color off? Doesn't it seem more grey than it did?"

"It does now that you've mentioned it." Jack said. "Why do you think we're in an alternate dimension?"

"I had hypothesized that we had fallen into an alternate dimension, but I didn't want to say anything until someone else reached the same conclusion as I had." I replied with a slight shrug.

"You're bleeding!" Raf exclaimed.

"Am I?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah, your leg is all torn up and when you turned around your back is soaked in blood."

"I've had worse," I assured Raf. I reached into my shorts pocket and pulled out my pocket knife and cut off a piece from the front of my shirt. I used that small strip to make a makeshift bandage for my bleeding leg and tied it tightly. "Lets find a way to get the hell out of here." I said.

Then Optimus said something that caught my attention, "Look, Skyquake's tomb is empty."

"How did we miss Skyquake rising and shining?" Bulkhead asked.

"It would seem Starscream got what he came for." Ratchet said.

"Another matter for another time," Optimus said. "Right now our priority is locating Jack, Jon, Miko, and Rafael." Optimus then touched his com unit and said, "Arcee, bridge us back to base."

Jack, Miko, Raf, and I were walking by a rock when we saw an arm reach out and then a big Decepticon stand up and walk out from behind the rock. "Zombie!" Miko yelled.

The other three started running towards the Autobots, because that's where the thing was heading, I stayed put realizing the once dead Con was in this dimension with us. "Guys look out!" Jack called.

"Bulkhead!" Miko cried.

"It's right behind you!" Raf called.

The once dead Con struck at Bulkhead but passed right through him, confirming my suspicion, I silently cursed. This was not a good way to start the day off, trapped in an alternate reality with a psyco, human hating, power loving, Con. "Awesome," Miko said. "It can't touch them either."

The Con turned and faced the four of us and the purple eyes were disturbing. It started walking towards us and I started to feel my heart hammer and panic set in.

"If that thing can't touch the Bots…" Jack started.

"Just like we can't…" Miko put in.

"Then we're trapped in the shadow zone with a Decepticon zombie." Raf finished.

"If we aren't ghosts now," Miko said worriedly. "We will be soon."

"Run you idiots!" I yelled as the Con reached the other three.

They turned and sprinted away from the Decepticon and I hopped off of the rock I was sitting on and joined them on the ground. I ran next to Raf, who ran next to Jack, who ran next to Miko. We turned a corner and Raf tripped. Jack stopped, turned around and went back for Raf. Jack brought the twelve year old to where we were hiding and Raf said, "Jack, my glasses!"

Jack peered out from behind the rock and then leaned back and said, "Way too dangerous."

"I can't see without them." Raf stated.

"What are you, ninety?" Miko asked.

I sighed in anger and turned to say something to her, but Jack beat me to it, "Not helping." he said knifing his right hand through the air.

"Fine." Miko said. She set her face in a determined stone and strode confidently out from behind the rock, and then sprinted to Raf's glasses.

"Wait!" Jack insisted.

Miko came back and handed the glasses to Raf and said, "Here ya go gramps, lets book." We started sprinting again and Miko started talking again. "Maybe we could set a trap and crush it."

"With what?" Raf asked. "Nothing is solid except us and the ground."

"We can't run forever," Miko said. "But maybe we could hide."

We stopped to catch out breath and I had to remove my bandage and make a new one. I securely tightened that one and Miko said in between pants, "The best thing about zombies is that they're slow moving." Jack's cell phone started ringing and we all stood up a little straighter.

"Is that your…" Raf started and then said at the same time as Miko, "phone?"

"Hello, Arcee?" Jack asked when he answered. "Hello? Arcee? Ugh, nothing!"

"Gee imagine that," Miko said. "The fourth dimension has lousy cell phone reception."

"Wait, guys, guys, guys," Jack said tapping his phone a couple of times. "The phone rang, we're getting a signal."

"Hmm, maybe the Autobots can't see or hear us is because we're moving at hyper speed or something." Raf said thoughtfully.

"That would certainly account for us passing through them and almost everything else except the ground." I said. "Raf, I think you're onto something."

"Think that they could read us?" Jack asked.

"Texting!" Raf said.

"Text me!" Miko said. "If my phone's back at the base, maybe they'll see it!"

Jack started texting and I heard heavy footsteps approaching our spot. I looked behind us and saw the zombie walking around the corner we had just passed not to long ago. "Umm, guys…" I said.

"Not right now, brainiac," Miko said. "We're saving our hides!"

"I'm trying to save yours!" I snapped pointing at the approaching Con.

Raf turned and asked, "Uh, can you type and run?"

"Déjà vu." Miko said.

"What?" Jack and I asked at the same time.

"This doesn't look familiar to you?" Miko asked.

"Not really." Jack answered.

"Dude, we just ran one big circle!" Miko said as the four of us looked over our shoulders. We all grunted in surprise when we hit something solid. "Sweet."

"Whoa." Jack whispered.

"It must've gotten trapped in here during the explosion too." Raf said.

"Well, if it's solid," Jack said.

"We can use it." I finished.

The four of us pushed the gigantic metal arm of Starscream towards where the zombie would be coming out and Miko asked, "Anyone know how to fire this thing?"

"I could try to hotwire it, but I don't have the tools or the time." I said.

"I don't see a trigger." Miko said.

"Starscream did something with his fingers." Raf said.

"We have one shot, we need to make it count." Jack said.

"Thank you captain obvious." I said.

The zombie walked forward and Jack pulled the giant index finger backwards. A rocket launched off the arm and flew towards the target. The rocket detonated and Miko asked, "How do you like us now?"

The zombie came out of the smoke virtually unharmed and I groaned. "Great, we're dead." I said, but then the zombie a right arm fell off. "Maybe not." The arm twitched a couple of times and then got up and headed towards the four of us "You have got to be kidding me." I groaned.

"Come on," Jack said. "Come on."

"How can a zombie arm move faster than the actual zombie?" Miko asked.

We ran around and we were disheartened when we saw Starscream's arm again. "Oh come on!" Miko said in disbelief. "This place is like one big merry go round!"

"You've got that right." I said.

"Skyquake," Starscream's voice said. There was the sound of footsteps and Starscream appeared. "Your master summons you."

"How did freak get into our dimension?" Miko asked.

"He didn't," Jack said. "He can't see us."

"Thank god for small favors." I said. There was the sound of the metal fingertips clanking on the ground and Miko turned around.

"Forget Starscream," Miko said. "We've gotta run…some more."

"Damn straight!" I said.

We started running and a ground bridge opened up. "A ground bridge portal?" Raf asked in surprise.

"That must be our way out of here." Jack said.

"The Autobots saw our text." Miko said.

"If we go through we run smack into Starscream if we don't…" Raf said. We all looked back at the approaching arm.

"We're zombie chow." Jack said.

"I don't know about you, but I'd rather take my chances with a one armed Decepticon than a zombie arm." I said walking towards the ground bridge portal.

"Option three: we keep running in circles." Miko said.

"Or better yet," I said stopping just before the portal. "We go through and then the arm follows."

"Are you crazy!" Miko asked.

I stopped and thought about the question and then indicated that I was a little crazy by lifting my right hand up and showing my thumb and index finger close together.

"A little bit, that's comforting." Miko grumbled.

"This needs to be timed perfectly, I can't do it because I've lost too much blood, Jack you'll need to do it." I said.

"Me, why?"

"Don't argue, just do it!" I yelled.

"Follow my lead." Jack said jogging to the portal. He leaned forward and I limped forward. Miko was making funny noises and Jack finally said, "Now!" We all sprinted through the ground bridge and through Starscream's legs.

"Humans?" the Decepticon asked in surprise. "Where did you vermin come from?" We ignored him and sprinted away, me leaving a trail of blood.

Another ground bridge opened and Optimus, Arcee, and Bulkhead walked through it. Optimus looked down at the four of us and said, "Jack, Jon, Miko, Rafael."

"Optimus." I said.

"By the Alspark, what happened?" Arcee asked when she saw me.

The other humans turned and looked at me more closely, they had thought that my leg and back were the only things that were bleeding, but I had a rock in my stomach from the explosion at the ground bridge. "Nothing major." I said weakly. My eyesight started to slip and then I blacked out.

**Shadestalker's POV**

Optimus came back carrying Jon in his right hand and my spark skipped a beat. "Ratchet, get the med bay ready." Optimus said.

Ratchet walked over and took Jon from Optimus' hand and headed to the med bay. After ten minutes, Ratchet had Jon hooked up to some human equipment and had him stabilized. I wasn't looking forward to talking with his mother about this. I was standing over my charge when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to look and saw that it was Optimus' hand. "We need you in the main room." the Prime said.

"Yes, sir." I said. I looked down at my charge and then followed Optimus out of the med bay.

We Autobots then gathered around and looked down at the other three humans and Miko said, "If you're going to blame anybody, blame me."

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Jack asked. "A couple dozen times?"

"Miko, what you endured had been lessen enough," Optimus said. "We're just glad that you are all safe."

Bulkhead knelt down and placed his fist on the floor and held out Miko's phone. "I guess it was a good thing that you dropped this." he said. "Too bad you didn't get any pictures though."

"Nah," Miko said. "That's ok. After today I pretty much have zombie close up seared into my brain."

"Will Jon be ok?" Raf asked.

Miko's face fell when she heard that and she looked up at me. "He should be fine once he regains his blood volume," Ratchet said. "If he had lost another three ounces, he'd be dead."

I turned and looked at the medic and said, "So not helping."

"Sorry, but it's the truth." Ratchet apologized.

"When he wakes up, can you tell him that I'm sorry I dragged him into all of this?" Miko asked.

"From what I know of Jon, he doesn't do anything that he doesn't want to do or feel is right," I said looking down at the human femme. "But I'll pass along your message."

_Three Hours Later:_

I had just gotten dont talking to Jon's mother and my audio receptors still hurt from her outburst. She had ended by saying just make sure that he gets home in one piece. I was walking back to my quarters when Arcee stopped me. "You ok?" she asked me, concerned.

I sighed and shook my helm. "Not really," I answered. "I almost lost my charge today. I'm supposed to protect him from this sort of thing and I didn't. I feel like a failure."

"Jack said that Jon gave the small group a quiet confidence to continue on," Arcee said crossing her arms. "Even though he didn't talk a lot, your charge came up with a plan that Jack modified."

"If that was supposed to make me feel better, it didn't really do that." I said.

"Sorry, I was just trying to help." Arcee said.

"I know, I appreciate that 'Cee," I said. "I'll see you around." I walked passed her and got into my room. My com buzzed and I answered it. "Shadestalker."

"He's awake," Ratchet said. "If you want to come see him, now's the time. Optimus just got done speaking to his carrier and she said to keep him here over night."

"I'll be right over, I just need to get out of my room first." I told the medic.

"See you when you get down here, and Shadestalker,"

"Yeah?"

"Don't take too long."

**Authors Note:**

**Short chapter compared to my other chapters. Sorry about that. **

**The song for this chapter is "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift**

**Shoutout to optoclaw for the review and the song suggestion, it didn't quite fit with this chapter. I'll see if I can fit it in with the up coming chapters.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Operation Crossfire Pt. 1

**Shadestalker's POV**

I walked to the med bay and saw that Jon was sitting up and alert. He was still hooked up to an assortment of machines, but he was conscience. "How are you feeling?" I asked him.

"I've been better," Jon said with a slight smile. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing really, everyone has gone back home and you're the only one here." I said.

Jon winced and asked softly, "Does my mom know…"

"That you're here?" I finished. Jon nodded. "Yeah, don't worry kid, she's more ticked at me than she is at you."

"How much blood did I loose?" Jon asked looking at Ratchet.

"You lost about one third of your total blood that was in your body," Ratchet said. "The rock missed the major artery by half a centimeter, but if you would've lost a couple more ounces, I doubt you'd be alive."

Jon sat back a bit more on the human sized medical berth and closed his eyes. "I'm not so sure," he said. "If I had lost forty percent of my blood, then I most likely would have been close to death. With another two ounces or so that would've raised the percentage from thirty three to roughly thirty five or thirty six, so I would've still passed out from lack of blood and oxygen."

"Now here's the more important question," I said. "How much has he gotten back?"

"Jon'll need to stay here for another two days to fully recover," Ratchet said. "He's regained only about one third of what he's lost so far."

"Thank god it's a Friday." Jon muttered.

I chuckled at Jon's response and Ratchet shooed my out of the med bay. "He needs rest, lots off it." Ratchet said.

"Alright, Ratch," I said. "See you later, kid."

"See ya, Shade." Jon said.

**Jon's POV**

It was the next day and I woke up to the sound of vehicles entering the base. I groaned and sat up. I yelped in pain as my stomach pulled at the stitches Ratchet had out in. I heard footsteps running and a door slid open. Ratchet came in followed by everyone else and they all looked at me with concern. "I'm fine," I said gritting my teeth. "Just twinged my stitches when I sat up."

"You need to take things more slowly, youngling." Ratchet said.

My head thudded against the pillow and I looked at the medic. "Can you elevate the bed a little bit so that I'm not laying down flat all the time?" I asked.

"If you feel that's necessary." Ratchet said.

"It's so that I don't pull at my stitches everytime that I sit up." I said.

"That sounds logical." Shade said.

Ratchet positioned the bed so I was partially sitting up, I thanked him and Optimus called for Bulkhead. "There's an Energon signature that I want you to investigate, can you do that quickly?" the Prime asked the former Wrecker.

"Of course, Optimus." Bulkhead said.

Bulkhead ran through the ground bridge and was gone for quite a while before Miko called him. "Marco, Marco," Miko said. "Marco!"

"Miko?" I heard Bulkhead answer.

Miko made an error sound and said, "You're supposed to say Polo."

Bulkhead came back and we were now sharing the medical bay. "Engaging the enemy on your own was foolish, Bulkhead." Optimus said.

"Breakdown jumped me," Bulkhead said. "I know that I can take him."

Bulkhead then squirmed away from Ratchet's welding and Ratchet said, "Stay still."

"You should see the other guy, right Bulk?" Miko put in.

"Uhh, yeah about that…" Bulkhead said.

"You didn't torch him?" Miko asked.

"Not exactly," Bulkhead said. "I figured you all did." gesturing at the rest of the Autobots.

"Oh." Miko said sadly.

"When I came to," Bulkhead said. "Breakdown was just…gone. I remember hearing a copter. Maybe it was Agent Fowler."

"Not me." I groaned when I heard that voice. "But I have an idea who." Fowler turned and looked at me. "The Director sends their regards and this new phone since yours was destroyed." Fowler handed the phone to Shade and Shade brought the phone to me. I checked it out and it had all of my contacts in it, plus some (ie the Autobots had been added).

"Thanks." I said.

Fowler nodded and continued. "Show me where this Con napping occurred."

I found that my phone came with a pair of headphones, so I plugged those in and scrolled through the music. It was everything that I had had in my previous iPhone. It kind of made me wonder how my mom got all of this information. I found the song I was looking for and pushed play. I closed my eyes and let the music take me to a different place.

**Shadestalker's POV **

When Optimus said that we were going to rescue Breakdown I was shocked. But when he explained why, it made perfect sense. I still refused to believe that Decepticons would try to rescue them, but we rolled out anyway. We got out of the ground bridge, guns out.

"No signs of life," Optimus stated. "Human or Cybertronian."

"Tire tracks." Bumblebee pointed out.

"Forget the tracks Bumblebee," Ratchet said. "I'm picking up a faint Energon signal north by northwest."

"Breakdown." Optimus said.

"But we shouldn't be getting a reading unless…" Arcee said.

"His Energon has been spilled." Ratchet finished.

"So has MECH started dissecting him?" I asked.

"Most likely." Ratchet said sadly.

We followed the signal and found Breakdown's optic. "What in the name of the Alspark?" I whispered.

"Breakdown's eye." Ratchet said.

"Why leave this here? What purpose does this serve?" I asked looking at Optimus.

"Ratchet, see what you can pick up from the optic." Optimus ordered.

Ratchet picked up the optic and placed it in his Energon scanner.

"What are you doing?" Arcee asked.

"The optic imagers might have retained the final images seen." Ratchet said.

"What do you know, weird science wins again." Arcee said.

An image of a human came up and I recognized that as Jon's uncle from the descriptions that he had given me. "Well, well, Optimus Prime, it's a pleasure to set eyes on you again," the man said.

"He's converted the optics to a two way feed." Ratchet said grimly.

"And you must be Silas." Optimus said.

"In the flesh," Silas replied. "But being the captive isn't one of yours, I'll admit I was expecting Megatron."

"In this circumstance, Autobots and Decepticons share a common foe." Optimus replied.

"MECH is anything but common," Silas responded. "Our guest is yielding quite a bit of information about your biomechanics as you can see. Although Breakdown himself can't see so well anymore."

"We don't fear you." Ratchet said.

"Oh but you should," Silas said. "In fact I would strongly urge that you not stand your ground."

"It's a trap!" Optimus said.

"Would this be a roll out kind of trap?" Arcee asked.

"Evacuate, now!" Optimus ordered.

We transformed and rolled out, the explosion threw us into the air and we transformed. "So, any idea where they're keeping the rest of Breakdown?" Arcee asked.

"My guess, follow the tracks Bee saw earlier." I said.

"Optimus, rendezvous to my coordinates, I'm in need of back up." Bulkhead came through on our com unit.

"Autobots, roll out." Optimus commanded.

"We roll." I said transforming and following the Prime.

We found Bulkhead fighting the Cons and we transformed back into our bipedal modes. I aimed my guns at a Seeker and fired. The Con went down and Starscream transformed and flew into the air. The Cons fell back and Optimus approached Bulkhead. I somehow knew what he was going to say, so I put my battle mask in place to hide my smile. "Engaging the enemy on your own was even more foolish this time, Bulkhead," the Prime said. "But I am honored that you saw fit to rescue your rival. You have truly risen above yourself."

"Did you see?" Bulkhead demanded. "I beat Breakdown and bashed them all with his own hammer! I won the rematch!"

"I'm sure Miko would be proud." Arcee said.

"I'm sure she will, 'Cee." I said.

We had Agent Fowler bridge us back to base and I saw that Jon was asleep with headphones in his ears. "How long has he been asleep?" I asked looking at Agent Fowler.

"He's been out since after you left to rescue Breakdown." Agent Fowler replied.

Jon stirred and opened his optics. He blinked a couple of times and I walked over to him. "Hey, Shade," Jon greeted me tiredly as he pulled the headphones out of his ears. "How did it go?"

"Bulk rescued Breakdown and the rest is history," I answered. "How are you feeling?"

"The sooner I can sleep in a more comftorable bed the better," Jon said wryly. "I don't think I've slept this badly since I was a baby."

I chuckled and sat down next to my charge. "You know that's not what I meant." I said.

Jon sighed and looked away from me and replied, "I know, I just feel like absolute scrap at the moment."

I looked the other way to see Bulkhead transform and head out to bring Miko home. Agent Fowler descended and approached the berth. "Jon, I have some pretty bad news for you." Agent Fowler said.

"What?" Jon asked turning his head to face Fowler and me.

"Your father has escaped from prison, he took out six guards in his escape." Agent Fowler said.

"What now?" Jon asked.

"Your mom believes that he'll come for you next and she wants you moved someplace safe." Agent Fowler answered.

Jon shook his head. "No," he said. "Let him come for me."

"What!" I demanded looking at my charge in disbelief.

"My father has probably already been reunited with my uncle and will excpect me to be moved," Jon said. "The moment you move me, they'll strike and take me, you'll lose agents and I don't want anyone to die for me." Jon looked up at me and Fowler and continued speaking. "Besides, I have some unfinished buisness with my father anyway."

"Your mother won't agree to this," I warned. "She'll move you anyway."

Jon smiled and said, "She'll think that she's moving me."

Agent Fowler was looking confused and he stepped in the conversation again. "Jon, your father is a threat to your safety." he said.

"Unlikely," Jon said. "Unless MECH has a mole in your agency they won't know that my mom is the director of it all. They won't know that I've been informed of all of MECH's things and what they're about, they'll try to recruit me again. Mom will move me, but I'll be at the mansion ready for the questions from my father."

"How can your mom move you, but not move you?" I asked.

"You already know the answer to that," Jon said. "Besides, if my dad is smart, he'll arrange a time and a place to meet me away from the mansion, so I'll be able to actually meet him."

"Why would you do that?" Fowler asked.

"You want to arrest him again?" Jon answered with a question. Fowler nodded. "Then I'm your ticket. My dad won't expect me to be bait for you guys. Once he gives me a time and a place, I'll meet him there, get my answers, and you'll get your man."

"It still sounds too risky." I said looking at Jon.

"No risk, no reward." Jon said. There was a glint in his eye that previously had not been there, and I was concerned.

I looked over at Fowler for help, but he seemed to be actually considering it. "You seriously can't be thinking about placing a sixteen year old in danger like that!" I exclaimed.

"All of his points have made sense," Agent Fowler said. "Very well, the director will not know about this."

"Thank you, Agent Fowler." Jon said.

"For Primus' sake!" I cried. "What's gotten into you?"

Jon looked into my optics and said, "I've already been put in danger. Whether it's been intentional or not, I have been placed in trickey positions." Jon paused. "Yesterday I was in an alternate dimension with a robot that wanted to kill me and I was bleeding a lot. Before I was even here, I was followed by Cons wanting to kidnap me. When my father was arrested, I was in a tricky spot there as well, I didn't know Fowler was a government agent at the time."

"You could get hurt." I said weakly.

Jon raised an optic ridge and replied, "So could you. But it's the choices we make that measure if the risk is great enough for the reward, and I believe that this risk is big enough for the reward of getting my psychotic father back behind bars."

I sighed in defeat and finally agreed to let Jon face his father, albeit grudgingly. "If anything goes wrong, your mom will have my spark for it." I warned.

"Then I won't have anything go wrong," Jon said. He looked at Agent Fowler and continued. "Would it be possible of you could bring in roughly twenty five pounds of cortosisium metal?"

"For what purpose?" Agent Fowler asked.

"Jon's going to help me make a bow." I said.

Agent Fowler raised an optic ridge and said, "I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks," Jon said closing his eyes and setting his head down on the pillow. "Could you also see if you could make a mold for a gigantic longbow as well?"

"My agency could do that," Fowler answered. "How long will it have to be?"

"Take a modern longbow and scale that up four times," Jon said. "They do that and your agency has the perfect size for Shade."

"We'll work on that," Fowler assured Jon. "Just get well."

"I will," Jon promised. "Trust me, I will."

**Jon's POV**

It was now Monday and I was woken up in a rude fashion. Shade blared his horn and my eyes snapped right open. I turned my head and saw Shade in his Lamborghini Gallardo form. "Really?" I asked him.

"We need to go, otherwise you'll be late." Shade said.

"Late for what?" I asked him from the medical bed.

"School!"

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Seven thirty." Shade replied.

"My class doesn't start until eleven!" I said.

"Oh, well in any case you need a shower," Shade said. "You're starting to stink."

"Take me home and I'll shower." I said.

"We have showers here, human sized showers too." Shade said.

"I need a change of clothes," I said. "Humans don't have permanent armor like you guys do."

"Your mom dropped clothes by last night while you were asleep," Shade said. "She said that this was your safe house because MECH and your father wouldn't be able to track you here."

"So I have to live with you guys?" I asked.

"We're not that bad to live with," Shade said with a smile. "Although, like any family we have our moments."

"How long will I be staying here?" I asked.

"Until your father has been arrested and contained." Shade answered.

"Could you bring me to my new room then?" I asked. "I'm sick of being stuck in a medical ward."

"You don't exactly have a room," Shade said. "But I could see if I could find one."

Ratchet walked in the med bay and I looked up at him. "Will I be able to shower, Ratchet?" I asked him.

Ratchet pointed his right arm at me and a green laser came out and he scanned me with it. Everytime he passed my belly, the laser thingy would turn red. "You may shower," Ratchet said. "I do not advise you doing any strenuous activity for another five days."

"What do you consider strenuous?" I asked.

"Baseball, running, batting, workouts of any kind that involve your abdominal muscles, and your martial arts." Ratchet answered.

"That's almost everything I do!" I objected.

"You'll risk tearing out the stitches and losing more blood," Ratchet said. "Besides, you need to rest, not run around like an energized youngling."

"I am an energized youngling!" I said. "Are my internal injuries healed?"

"Fifty percent," Ratchet said looking down at me. "Your external injury is at a meager thirty percent."

"Take the stitches out." I said.

"What!" Ratchet and Shade exclaimed at the same time. Shade transformed into his other form and was now standing next to Ratchet.

"If my internal injuries are at fifty percent, they can do without the stitching holding them together," I said. "The stitching is mainly to help heal the external injury properly."

"Precisely, that's why it's there!" Shade said.

"Cauterize the external injury," I said. "It does the same thing as stitches and I'll heal quicker."

"What's the rush to heal faster?" Ratchet asked.

"To get back to baseball quicker of course." I answered.

"You humans, always rushing about trying to rush things that shouldn't be rushed." Ratchet said scornfully shaking his head.

I rolled my eyes and looked at the medic, "Alright, have it your way then doctor," I said. "I'll just have to go to another doctor."

"You can't, MECH…" Shade slipped up.

I glared at my guardian, hoping that Ratchet hadn't caught that, but the medic caught it. "What is this about MECH?" he asked. "Optimus, you might want to come in here." Ratchet then called.

"Good goin there Shadestalker." I grumbled.

"Hey! It was an accident!" Shade said.

Optimus walked into the med bay and looked at the three of us before focusing in the medic. "What is it, old friend?" the Prime asked.

"Our young friend here," Ratchet said gesturing at me. "Mentioned something about me taking his stitches out and cauterizing his external wound. When I made a statement saying how humans are always in a hurry to rush things not meant to be rushed, he said he'd go to another doctor. Shadestalker then said that Jon could not do that because of MECH."

"MECH?" Optimus asked looking at Shade and me.

"Did Fowler tell you why I'm staying here for a little while longer?" I asked.

"No, Agent Fowler just said that you needed a safe haven and the Director wanted you here because she believes it's the safest place for you." Optimus said.

"My father escaped from prison, he killed six guards in his escape," I said. "My mom thinks that he'll be coming after me to try and recruit me for MECH again."

"Your father doesn't know that you know about him?" Ratchet asked.

I shook my head. "No, he has no idea that I even know that he was an agent with my mom before he went rouge." I answered. "Another thing that I should probably tell you guys from what Agent Fowler has shared with me, Silas is my uncle."

"What? The Director's brother is her nemesis?" Ratchet asked.

"Not necessarily," I answered. "They just have opposing viewpoints."

"This is disturbing information," Optimus said. "Why did you withhold that from us after we rescued Breakdown?"

"How would that have looked to your team, Optimus?" I asked. "It would've made it look like I provided my uncle with intel that you guys were coming to rescue Breakdown so he could plant those explosives. The rest of the team wouldn't trust me around the other kids, they wouldn't have trusted me at all. How logical would it have been for me to just say, oh by the way that's my uncle doing all of that!"

"He's got a point, Prime." Shade said.

"You knew my uncle worked for MECH, so you must've informed the Autobots of that, but telling them that Silas is my uncle, the head honcho, that's probably not a good thing." I said. "Can I get the stitches removed or what?"

"If you must," Optimus said. "But remember Jon, this team will never doubt your loyalty to the Autobots and your human counterparts."

"I hope you're right, Prime." I said. I closed my eyes, not wanting to betray any of my thoughts. "Is there some sort of anesthetic I can take?"

"It'll be administered shortly, I need to get my holoform ready." Ratchet said.

"Alright," I responded. "Shade, see you when I wake up, have my mom call me in sick today please."

"I'll see what I can do." Shade said with a chuckle.

I nodded my thanks and closed my eyes preparing myself for the recovery ahead.

**Shadestalker's POV**

Jon's mother agreed to call him in sick from school today when I told her that Jon had asked for the stitches to be removed and the wound to be cauterizing instead. I asked her if they were any closer to finding Jon's father and she said that they were not and that she would keep me informed. I went topside and sat down next to Cliffjumper's grave. I had not known the Bot really well, but from the few occasions I had met him, he seemed like a decent Bot. I couldn't help but wonder when this war would end and all of the death would end. I stayed up here for a good three hours before I stood up and headed back into base. I headed right to the med bay and saw my charge sitting upright on the berth and looking around the room. "How are you feeling, kid?" I asked him.

"I've felt better, but I've also felt worse," Jon answered. "I've been up for about an hour. Ratchet actually healed everything inside and out with the cauterizer."

"Is that good?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah, it means that I can run and do things like an energized youngling," Jon said. "But it'll be sore for a couple of days."

I smiled at my charge and shook my helm in amusement. "Lets get you to the wash racks so that you can freshen up." I said.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Jon said sliding out of the bed. "Where are my clothes?"

"Your fresh clothes are waiting for you in the washroom, the human washroom that is." I answered.

"Thanks, how about school?"

"Taken care of."

Jon nodded and gingerly walked next to me as I led him to the human sized washroom. "Thanks, Shade." Jon said.

"No problem, kid." I said back.

"I got a message from my father about ten minutes after I had woken up," Jon said looking at me. I felt my spark freeze. "He said he wanted to meet me, alone."

"Where?" I asked.

"I can't tell you that," Jon answered. "If I want my answers and Fowler wants to get my father, I'll need to do as he asks."

"But…"

"We had already agreed about this, Shade," Jon said. He no longer sounded like a sixteen year old, he sounded like an adult. "You agreed to let me do my own thing, and you said that you'd stay out of it."

"How will Fowler find you?" I asked. "MECH will most certainly check to see if you're bugged."

"I didn't say when I'd reveal where I was with my father to Fowler." Jon said quietly.

"You're going to infiltrate MECH!" I accused my charge. "Aren't you?"

"They seem to have a perverse interest in Cybertronians," Jon said. "If I could find what they're working on and sabotage it, it'll set them back."

"Just go shower, we'll talk more when you come out of their." I said.

"As you wish." Jon said going into the showers.

**Jon's POV**

I found a new set of clothes hanging on a rack across from the shower, along with a towel. I stripped down and looked at myself in the mirror. I had a new scar on my torso, right next to my belly button on the right side. The scar stretched two inches across my abbs and I couldn't resist the temptation to follow the newly cauterized flesh. I tore my gaze away from my reflection and headed into the shower. I turned it on and turned the temperature up a little bit for the water. I let the warm water crash against my face and in my heart I knew that I would have to end up revealing something that I had hidden away from the Autobots. I finished with my shower after roughly ten minutes, and I shut the water off, dried myself off, and put my new clothes on. I was now wearing a black sleeveless tee, blue jeans, black riding boots, and fingerless black leather gloves. I stepped out of the room and looked up at my guardian. "Is there a place we could talk?" I asked.

"My quarters." Shade responded. He knelt and placed his hand on the ground. I got onto the hand and Shade stood up.

Shade started walking down the hallway and eventually we got to this door that he opened and walked through. He set me down on his gigantic bed and sat down next to me. "What is it you want to talk about?" he asked.

"You're the one that wanted to chat." I said.

"I just don't agree with you going in alone, there has to be a better alternative," Shade said. "I also don't like the fact you want to stay with MECH for a while."

"It's the only way that my dad will meet with me," I said. "And as for the second one, the more information that you have the better."

"I still don't like it." Shade stated.

"Just deal with it!" I said. "How often have you had to do something that someone else hasn't agreed with?"

"Quite a bit, but you don't have to do this."

"I feel that as his son and as Silas' nephew it is my duty to stop them," I said. "And anyone be damned if they stand in my way to prevent that."

"What about your mother?" Shade asked. "She'd want you to stop this."

"She's the one that brought my clothes you said, correct?" Shade nodded. "She got my riding boots that have hidden knives sheaths in them, she got my riding gloves that also can serve as martial arts gloves, I think my mom found out and she's trying to help me out."

"What makes you say that?" Shade asked. I showed him a text from my mom that described what I had just said to him. I then showed him another text that she had sent that said, "Bring JS&MECH hell,". "Oh." Shade said.

"Exactly, that's what makes me think that." I said back. "Can you get me a ground bridge to my house?"

"Only if Ratchet and Optimus aren't present." Shade said.

"We'd better hurry and look then, we're running out of time."

Shade picked me up and brought me to the main room, and as if fate were on our side, no one was in sight. Shade set me down and I jogged to the ground bridge. Shade set the coordinates, pulled the trigger down, and I turned around. "I will see you later." I said.

"Be careful." Shade replied.

"Ditto." I said. I then turned back around and sprinted through the ground bridge. I was in the basement of the house and that saved me some time. I found two knives that I was looking for, one was a single edged blade that was used in the kitchen. It had a four inch blade and the handle fit perfectly in the palm of my hand. The second knife was a dagger that my great-grandfather had brought back from Germany after WWII. The blade was five inches long, sharp, and double edged. I sheathed both blades in the boots and covered the handles with my jeans. I went upstairs and exited the house.

I didn't have to wait very long for a van to pull up. My dad got out of the van and walked towards me. "Jon, it's good to see you!" he said with a cheery smile.

"I wish the same could be said for you." I said coldly.

"Oh come on, don't believe the stuff you see on the news, it's never true." my father said. "I've come to ask you to reconsider the offer your uncle gave you."

"What are my options?" I asked.

"You accept or you don't," my father replied. "In which case we'll take you anyway."

"Why don't I accept then so it doesn't add another crime to your record." I said as I stepped forward.

"Make sure he isn't bugged." my father commanded. A big burly man stepped out of the van and stepped towards me.

He scanned me with something and then turned and looked at my father. "He is clean, he got nothin on him." he said in a Russian accent.

My father nodded once and looked at me. "Lets get going, shall we?"

"Why keep burning daylight?" I agreed and got in the van with him.

To my surprise the van drove into Jasper and to an old factory type building surrounded by warehouses. All of us in the van piled out and followed my father into a main warehouse where I saw Silas, my uncle, and we approached him. "Silas." my father said respectively.

"James, it's nice to see you again." Silas said. He then turned and looked at me. "It's nice to see my nephew again as well."

"Ditto." I said.

Silas chuckled and said, "Tonight you will be witnessing history, but first I want you to meet somebody…"

I heard soft metal clanking and then a thud behind me. I turned around and saw an arachnoid type robot with purple eyes. "You must be the genious everyone keeps blathering on about." the spider bot said in a feminine voice filled with malice.

"You're just a wreck, I'd hate to see whatever ugly things created you." I said.

The spider bot laughed and looked down at me. "The name's Airachnid, ex Decepticon." she said.

"Good for you, the name's don't give a shit."

"What?" Airachnid asked in surprise.

"Don't give a shit what your name is," I said. "I'm here to do a job, and if you're here, I assume it's not to work with us."

"Smart kid," Airachnid said. "Do you know what a Decepticon is?"

"Don't know, don't care." I said with a slight shrug of my shoulders.

"They're gigantic metal beings, son." my dad said. He placed his hand on my shoulder and led me over to a computer. It showed Breakdown strapped to a table. "That's a Decepticon."

"What happened to it?" I asked.

"He escaped with help from the Autobots," Silas said. "I suppose you don't know what they are either." I shook my head. "You'll find out later tonight."

Most of the day passed and I was left to my own vices. My hand couldn't seem to stay still, so I found an old battery pack, and I took a rifle from storage and started messing around with it. Hours passed and I ended up creating a highly powered EMP rifle. I heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching and I fired the EMP at the equipment in the back right hand corner. No one saw me do it, and I put the computers out of commission. I was then told to go into a corner with my "fun gun" by my father and I did so. My father and MECH cleared out, to which I was confused and Airachnid got up onto the ceiling. The next thing I knew was Jack and Arcee pulled into the warehouse and Jack got off. "Mom!" he called.

"Looking for June?" Airachnid asked from the ceiling by the entrance. "She's hanging around here somewhere."

Arced transformed and stood protectively in front of Jack. "Airachnid." Arcee said darkly.

Airachnid shot some sort of webbing at Arcee and entangled her. Jack jogged next to Arcee and asked, "What's she doing here?"

All of MECH walked in and stood in front of Arcee. "Help them," Arcee pleaded. "They're human, just like you."

"A few human lives are a small price to pay for a miracle of science like yourself,"

Silas said coldly. He looked to his left and I recognized the figure as my father. "Jon, it's safe to come out now."

I silently cursed and got out from where I had hidden. I walked forward and Jack looked at me in shock. I gave him such s slight shake of my head that no one caught it except for him. My father shot Arcee with something and knocker her out. "Arcee." Jack said in concern. He knelt down next to her and touched her.

"You and I will have a private session later," Airachnid said. "Promis."

"Gentlemen," Silas said.

My father and another walked forward and took the GPS and Jack's cell phone. "I'm still learning about human kind," Airachnid said walking toward Jack. She knelt in front of him. "But one thing is clear to me Jack, you people care deeply about family. Therefore the sweetest revenge I could possible devize would be to make you watch as I take your family apart." She leaned in closely to Jack.

"If you hurt my mother…" Jack started.

"Remember how much I enjoy sport?" Airachnid asked. "Don't you Jack? So I'll give you the opportunity to save your mother. I've stashed her close by. If you can rescue her before the stroke of twelve, I will let the both of you go unharmed. Deal?"

"And if I can't?" Jack asked.

"What do you think?" Airachnid replied.

"Please, don't let her do this!" Jack said running up to Silas. "You can let us go, we won't tell anyone."

"Enough." Silas said pushing Jack to the ground. I smiled as I saw Jack pickpocket Silas' radio.

"Yes, Jack man up already. Six minutes." Airachnid said. Jack got up and ran out of the warehouse and Airachnid looked at me. "You've met him somewhere before, haven't you?"

"He goes to my school, so of course I've met him," I said. I saw my dad edging closer to Arcee and I looked back at Airachnid. "Which begs the question, why am I here?"

"To help dissect the Autobot." Silas said.

"I don't think so." I said defiantly.

Airachnid's eyes narrowed and she left.

At twelve, I was watching the big screen as Airachnid was torturing Jack and June, wishing that I could do something to help. "We only have time to take one part," Silas said. "Go straight for the heart."

This is where I completely lost it and abandoned my plan. My dad brought the drill close to Arcee's chest and I tackled him. "What are you doing?" my dad demanded.

"Stopping you!" I growled.

Arcee woke up and broke free as my dad threw me off of him. I rolled onto my feet and my dad charged at me. Arcee threw away the MECH agents and transformed into her motorcycle form. My dad threw a punch at me and I leaned back to avoid it. I swept my legs out and dumped my father on his back. My father got back onto his feet quickly and threw a super man punch at me. I caught the punch, drew him in, and punched him in the face. My dad retaliated with a punch to my stomach area and I was forced to let go. I backed away from my father and I was feeling a lot of pain in my gut.

"You know about the Bots and Cons, don't ya?" my father spat.

"I also know that you're a murderer and a liar," I said. "You're an oath breaker, and a man who betrayed his family, country, and himself."

"You know nothing about the matter!"

"I don't?" I said. I laughed without humor and looked at my father before kneeling down and unsheathing the single edged knife. "Then enlighten me." I did backwards handsprings to distance myself from my father, and when I judged to be a good distance away I stopped and threw the knife. It rotated nicely and got my father right in the stomach where I had been hit with the rock while I was in the shadow zone. My father looked shocked and fell to one knee. He stood back up and I charged at him. I left my feet and delivered a superman punch of my own. This punch connected with my dad's jaw and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. I heard Silas say, "How did they find us?" I wondered what he was talking about, and then I heard helicopters. I unsheathed the dagger and prepared to throw it at my uncle's back but he said, "So that's how it's done." He then snapped his fingers and the lights went out.

In two minutes the lights came back on and I went over to my unconscious father. I took the knife out of him and then carried him fireman style out of the warehouse. I saw three helicopters outside and I was stopped by agents with guns aiming them at me. "Uhh, hi?" I said cautiously.

"Jon!" Agent Fowler asked incredulously.

"Who else?" I asked as he walked forward. "I promised you that I'd get you my father back, didn't I?"

"What in Uncle Sam's beard happened?"

"That's a tale for another time," I said. "Right now, I need to set my traitorous father down." With that, I dumped my father on the ground and a medic rushed forward to take care of him. "Now I could go for some really strong pain killers."

Agent Fowler chuckled and walked over to June and Jack. Arcee saw me and I nodded to her. She signaled me over and I walked over. The two of us then walked over to Jack and his mother. "And she would be your?" his mother asked.

"Motorcycle, guardian, Autobot, friend." Jack said standing next to Arcee as she knelt.

"Call me Arcee." the femme said.

June stood up and looked at Arcee and said, "Thank you, Arcee." She then looked at me and saw I was in a bit of pain and asked, "Who is he?"

"Me?" I asked.

"He's Jon Peterson." Jack answered.

"As in _the _Jon Peterson?" June asked.

"The baseball player, mixed martial artist, real mastermind behind the ray gun and cortosisium metal," I said. "The son of a technological tycoon? That'd be me."

"I thought you were the son of two technological tycoons?" June asked in surprise.

"I only acknowledge my mother now," I said. "My father is dead, in a way. I no longer know the man who calls me son."

"I'm sorry." June said.

"Don't be, it's not your fault." I said with a smile. I turned and limped away. I got into a helicopter with Fowler and he took me back to the base. I thanked him and went down the elevator. I exited the elevator and saw Optimus and Ratchet there waiting.

"Scrap." I said.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, youngling." Ratchet said.

I sighed and said, "I know, but my dad's been caught again. Everything is fine."

"Not exactly, the Decepticons could have gotten to you." Optimus said.

"But they didn't," I said. "Nothing to worry about."

"An explanation is still needed." Optimus said.

I told them everything that had occurred to me the past two days and my discussion with Shade and Fowler. I then told them about my mom's support for my mission and how I went to the mansion, met my father there, and was taken to a factory/warehouse place to meet with MECH. I told them of the wait, my tinkering, Arcee's and Jack's arrival, Airachnid, my fight with my father, and finally ended with Fowler's rescue and him bringing me back here. "That explain everything?" I asked.

"It does, but one question remains," Optimus said. "What is your connection to MECH?"

"Silas, you know that," I said. "Why ask that again?"

"That is not what I meant, and you know it." Optimus said.

I let out a sigh of defeat and leaned against the railing. "There was a third thing that I was responsible for creating," I said. "It was a project that Silas was able to refine, it was meant as a farming tool originally, but Silas turned it into a weapon."

"Oh." Ratchet said.

"Now you know, one of the simplest things I created was turned into a weapon that could potentially be more deadly than a hydrogen bomb." I said.

I got off the railing and headed to Shade's room. I knocked and he opened the door. "Jon?" he asked surprised. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I need a place to sleep." I said.

"You are more than welcome to recharge here." Shade said sincerely.

"Thank you." I said. Shade knelt down and I climbed onto his hand. He stood up and walked back to his bed and set me down. I thanked him again and closed my eyes. As soon as I had done that, I could feel my exhausted body float away into the welcoming embrace of slumber.

**Authors Note:**

**Theme song for this chapter is "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence**

**Please R&R **


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Operation Crossfire Pt. 2

**Shadestalker's POV**

It has now been three days since Jon had returned from whatever he had done and he still refused to talk to me about it. I was really worried about my charge; I was worried that he would suddenly snap and let loose all of his emotions onto someone that didn't deserve them. I was so concerned that I went to Optimus. I headed to my commander's quarters and knocked on the door. "Come in." Optimus' baritone voice answered from behind the door. The door opened and I walked in and saluted the Prime. "Shadestalker," Optimus said surprised. The Prime was sitting behind a desk reading a report on a data card. "I was not expecting it to be you who knocked on my door."

"I'm sorry sir," I apologized. "But I'm here about my charge. He's not been the same ever since he came back from whatever it was he did that night."

"Jon has not talked to you about the events of that day?" Optimus said from behind his desk. I shook my helm and Optimus lifted a hand indicating that I could take a seat across from him. I complied and looked at the last Prime. "Jon confronted his father and I believe that it has left him scarred."

"Scarred?" I asked. "How?"

"Jon saved Arcee from being offlined by his own father," Optimus said folding his hands in front of him. "Jon fought his own father and wounded him."

"Was he recaptured?" I asked.

"Yes, Jon's father was captured with the help of Jon and the timing of Agent Fowler," Optimus said. "As for how Jon wounded his father, he used a knife and threw it."

"He threw a knife at his own father?" I asked astonished.

Optimus nodded. "I'm afraid so, he then knocked his father unconscious and I'm afraid MECH will be out for revenge."

"Against a sixteen year old kid?"

Optimus nodded again. "What you need to understand, Shadestalker, is that Jon had a trying night that night," Optimus said. "He fought against his own sire, he was forced to reveal his deepest connection to MECH, that Agent Fowler is still trying to figure out, and he almost saw two beings he cares for killed by Airachnid."

"I understand that sir," I said. "And if I may ask, what is the deeper connection to MECH besides him being Silas' nephew?"

"Jon said that he had created a third thing, it was originally supposed to be used for this planets agricultural use but Silas turned it into a weapon," Optimus answered. "Jon didn't share the specifics, but he did say that the weapon could potentially be more deadly than the humans hydrogen bomb."

"So Jon feels responsible for that?" I asked.

"Most likely," Optimus agreed. "You should get going, your charge will start to wonder where you disappeared off to."

I stood up and said, "Thank you, Optimus, this helped clarify things."

Optimus nodded and went back to reading the report that was on his desk. I left Optimus' quarters and went back towards the main room. From there, I went to the training room and was surprised to see Jon there. I stood in the doorway silently as Jon went through some movements and motions. I didn't know what they were, but they looked like different stances. Jon was wearing black shorts and that was about it. His body was coated in sweat, yet he still kept going through these motions. He started to increase the motions and their pace, and I searched the World Wide Web for information on what he was doing and came back with he was doing was practicing Muay Thai, a form of martial arts on this planet. Eventually Jon stopped and panting he asked, "How long have you been standing there?"

"What?" I asked in surprise. I was snapped out of my fascination with what he was doing.

Jon turned around and faced me. "How long have you been standing there?" he repeated.

"A while," I answered. "How long have you been in here?"

"Roughly two hours," Jon answered. "Fowler arrived with the mold and the cortosisium metal if you still want to make a bow."

"Will you teach me?" I asked.

"How to make the bow?" Jon asked.

"That and to do whatever it was you were doing."

"Muay Thai?" Jon asked surprised. I nodded. "Don't you already have some sort of fighting style?"

"Not as refined as that," I answered. "Besides I need as many edges as I can get on the battlefield if I want to survive this war."

"I don't really have to teach you," Jon said. "I have a feeling that you can just watch and process what you see from the Internet and apply that."

"I can do that, but where's the reward in that?"

"You're fighting a war, the reward is victory; the Decepticons vanquished, the Autobots victorious. What greater reward is there if not for peace?" Jon replied.

"Good point." I said.

"As for the bow, you still want to do that?"

"Yes, I find that interesting."

"You need to find it deadly, not interesting." Jon corrected.

"Very well," I said. "When can we get started?"

"Now, if you'd like." Jon said.

"Sounds good."

"And if I remember from when we first discussed this, you wanted the bow to have Cybertronian technology incorporated into it, did you not?" Jon asked.

"I did." I answered surprised at how good my charge's memory was.

"Have you procured the technology needed?" Jon asked looking at me.

"I have." I said reaching into my chassis and pulling out a cylinder that had a button on the side.

"What exactly will that do?" Jon asked.

"This will shrink the bow so that it turns into this cylinder and I can clip it onto my person, eliminating the bulkiness of the bow." I replied.

"That sounds logical," Jon said. "Lets get started, shall we?"

"What do we start with?" I asked.

"First we have to melt the cortosisium down into a liquid so that it'll fit the mold," Jon said. "Then we pour it in the mold, you place your cylinder in the handgrip, and we wait for the metal to cool down."

"Alright, how hot does cortosisium have to be until it melts?" I asked.

Jon thought for a moment and then said, "Close to three thousand five hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit."

"Where do we get something that will even burn that hot?" I asked.

"Energon." Jon replied.

"You can't be serious." I said.

"I'm serious." Jon said.

"We can't spare any if you've noticed!"

"The Decepticons can." Jon said.

"Optimus won't just let us waste Energon like that."

"It will only take the metal five minutes to melt completely," Jon said. "Remember that it stores energy? Well it can also diffuse the energy when it's melting."

"Is that why it's such an expensive material in your world?" I asked.

"Pretty much." Jon answered. "Plus, I kind of hacked into MECH's mainframe and found that out. They had done some experiments with it."

"You did what?"

"It was an accident, I was trying to hack into the Decepticons when another blocked my signal," Jon explained. "I traced the signal and hacked into it, I was surprised to find it was MECH."

"Your computer didn't get fried?"

"No, I don't use a PC like Raf does, I use a Mac," Jon said. "Back to the matter at hand before I went off topic with something I shouldn't have blurted, we'll only need about a pint of Energon."

"If you say so," I said. "I could lose a pint and not even be affected by it."

"Alright, then that's settled, why don't we just use the Energon inside of you to melt the metal?"

"What! I didn't…I was only…" I stammered.

"Good god man, do you want the damn bow or not?" Jon asked.

"Yes, but…"

"You just fricken said that losing a pint wouldn't affect you! Man up already!" Jon said in a stern voice.

"Fine, we'll do it your way." I said. I drew one of my katanas from my back and Jon raised an eyebrow. "You have something to collect it in?" I asked.

Jon nodded and ran to where I saw a towel was. Next to the towel was a jug. Jon emptied the remaining contents onto the floor and it went down the drain. He came back and said, "A pint, right here."

I shook my head and knelt down. I cut my wrist with the blade and Jon collected a pint of Energon. I stood up, sheathed the katana, and Jon ran into a side room. He emerged wearing a welding apron and pulling an arc welder behind him. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Kneel down and I'll weld you up, so know one will ask," Jon said. "Especially Ratchet, you don't want the wrench do you?"

"How do you know about Ratch and the wrench?" I asked with a smile.

"I heard Arcee and Bulkhead talking to Jack and Miko about it." Jon simply said. He then flipped down the welder's mask he was wearing and I knelt down and he welded my cut shut in a minute. Jon flipped the mask up and said, "Lets get to work."

He picked up the pint of Energon and brought it over to this shiny lump of metal. Jon then went over to a corner of the training room where I saw a bucket was. He poured the Energon into the bucket and then picked up the bucket and carried it over to the cortosisium metal. "Use your katana and see if you can strike through the metal." Jon said.

I looked down at my charge and he just nodded at the metal. With a sigh, I drew my katana and swung down at the chunk of metal. There was a loud ringing sound, but the metal was stringer than I had anticipated. "What purpose did that serve?" I asked putting the katana away.

"To show you that if used correctly, the cortosisium metal can be used as a defensive weapon if you choose it to be." Jon replied.

"You love talking in riddles, don't you?"

"Someone has to." Jon replied with a slight smile. He picked up the metal piece and placed it in the bucket. "When it's done melting, you'll need to pour it into the mold that's in the corner over there." Jon pointed to the corner where he had just come from with the bucket.

"Will do, you said this will take five minutes?"

"Roughly." Jon said as he walked back to the arc welder. He took a piece of metal and put something on the end of it. He used the welder to start it on fire and then he threw it into the bucket.

The Energon inside the bucket was then engulfed in flame as it consumed itself and I was worried that the Energon would seep in with the metal. "Won't the Energon mix in with the metal?" I asked.

"That's what I'm hoping for." Jon said.

"Huh?"

"That way you'll always have energy stored inside of the weapon if you ever need it." Jon said looking up at me.

"That doesn't make sense to me," I said. "Don't even bother trying to explain it, you'll just make my processor hurt."

Jon chuckled and said in a wry tone, "If someone had been trying to explain the concept to me and I didn't understand it, it'd make my head hurt as well."

"Then you know how a lot of us feel when we're next to geniuses like yourself." I said.

"At least then I would be normal," Jon said. "The five minutes are up, you should pour the liquid cortosisium metal into the mold."

I did as Jon asked and placed the transforming device where the handle of the bow would be. "How long do we wait for it to cool off?" I asked.

"I would give it three hours to properly cool off and take the shape of the mold," Jon said. "Now it's a matter of finding the right cable."

"What kind of cable to do you have in mind?" I asked.

"A thin metal cable or something like that,"

Jon said. "The arrows will need to be able to come off the string."

"Like this?" I asked pulling a strong, thin cable out of my chassis.

"That'd work," Jon said with a smile. "Now we just need to make you arrows."

"What substance would you recommend for that?" I asked.

"I have no clue," Jon replied. "I don't think that human weapons can puncture through your armor, so something made from your material."

"I think I know a place where we can get a lot of that." I said.

"Shadestalker, we need you by the ground bridge." Optimus said through the com unit.

"Be right there, sir." I replied. I looked down at Jon and smiled, "See you in a while, kid."

"See ya." Jon said.

I arrived in the main room and Optimus was standing next to Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee. "What's up?" I asked.

"We're going out for Energon." Bulkhead said.

"Good, we could all use some fresh Energon." I said.

"You got that right." Bulkhead said.

"Autobots," Optimus started.

"Optimus," Ratchet interrupted. "If one of you comes back wounded this time, well our Energon reserves are nearly depleted."

"Understood." Optimus said grimly. "Activate the ground bridge." Ratchet activated the bridge for us and Optimus commanded, "Autobots, roll out."

We all transformed and drove through the ground bridge; we were met with Decepticon troopers. Knockout and Breakdown got ahead of us and started making us chase them. Arcee pulled ahead of the rest of us, just as the armada arrived. We were then separated from each other as the armada created a barricade of rocks between Cee and us. We transformed and Optimus looked at the sky as we pointed our cannons skyward. "Arcee, fall back!" Optimus commanded. "You're outnumbered."

"We're always outnumbered," Arcee replied. "And we need that Energon!"

"Ratchet, lock onto Arcee's coordinates and prepare an emergency ground bridge." Optimus said.

"Sir, if I may," I said. "May I have permission to go after Arcee?"

"Denied, we're all going." Optimus said.

We got over the rubble and I was glad my battle mask was closed, because my jaw would've hit the ground when I saw who was fighting, Ratchet of all mechs. He looked at all of us and said, "Hoo-ah."

A ground bridge opened and all of us walked through in one piece. Before I walked through, I grabbed what was left of one Con's armor and brought it with me. "What happened?" Raf asked when we walked through.

"I only saw the gory aftermath, but I heard the doc was a one bot wrecking crew." Bulkhead said.

Ratchet picked up Raf and I saw Jon standing in the corner, this time wearing a shirt covering up his torso and his new scar. "Hey little fella." Ratchet said. He gently tossed Raf into the air and then set him back down.

I looked over at Optimus and he narrowed his optics slightly, just slightly. "Alright, what's your secret?" Arcee asked.

"No secret," Ratchet said. I only now noticed his optics were green instead of blue. "Just a little something I like to call SynthEn." Ratchet tossed a container of the synthetic Energon to Arcee and she caught it.

"From the data Bulkhead transcribed?" Arcee asked. "I thought the formula was…"

"Incomplete?" Ratchet said. "Not anymore."

"So Ratchet makes a better tuff guy than I do a smart guy?" Bulkhead joked. He handed the SynthEn to Optimus.

Optimus looked at the green Energon carefully and said, "Ratchet, I question the wisdom of using yourself as a test subject."

"If he hadn't, Optimus," I said. "Arcee most likely would've been offlined."

"Optimus, you didn't see Ratchet out there," Arcee said. "He was in overdrive. We should all try this stuff."

"Or give Ratchet more so we can take a vacation!" Bulkhead said.

"I agree that the initial results seem promising," Optimus said walking towards Ratchet. "But I recommend that further testing be confined to machines, not Autobots. Outnumbered though we may be, old friend we need a warrior in the laboratory right now, more than we need in the field." The Prime handed the container to Ratchet and then walked away.

As the next day progressed, Ratchet got stranger. "Optimus," I said. "If it is alright with you, I would like to remain here and work on a project with my charge, when you go on your next mission."

"Granted," Optimus said. "What is the project?"

"It's a surprise." I replied. I went back to where Jon was turning the armor into arrows. He had made me ten arrows out of the armor so far and there was still half the armor left. "How is it going with the arrows?"

"You haven't fired one yet," Jon said. "I've practically made every single one the same with the oversized equipment that I have to work with."

"How much does each arrow weigh?" I asked.

Jon finished the arrow he was working on and hefted it testing the weight. It looked like an oversized spear in his hands. "I'd say roughly five pounds for each arrow." Jon said. "That would be thirty five thousand grains."

I unclipped the bow from my belt and hit the button that allowed the bow to shrink down into the small cylinder. I was glad that the bow was strung, it had been difficult to do. I pulled the string back experimentally and was pleased to find that the bow bent with the string. "Give me an arrow and I'll shoot to see how it flies." I said.

"What will you shoot it at?" Jon asked. "You don't have any targets that can be used for archery."

"How should we make those?" I asked.

"We? Nu-uh, I'm not making anything more after I'm finished with these arrows," Jon said. "You still have to work on your quiver."

"Fine, fine, I'll get to it," I said. "How close to being done are you anyway?"

"Depends on how many arrows you want," Jon replied. "If you want eleven, then I'm done. If you want twenty then I'm just over halfway there."

"How many arrows are you willing to make?"

Jon stopped working on the arrow he was working on and looked up at me. "To tell you the truth I like working on this kind of stuff, it clears my head," Jon said. "I'll make as many arrows as I can out of this scrap metal and it only looks like we'll get about twenty or twenty one."

"I'll get to work on my quiver then." I said.

Three hours later, Jon finished making the rest of my arrows and I finished my quiver. I liked that all of the arrows were black and that the quiver was a dark blue. My bow on the other hand, I wanted to paint black, it was too shiny. I made a strap for my quiver and attached it to the quiver and then put it over my shoulders so that the fletching of the arrows would be sticking over my right shoulder. I adjusted the strap so it fit comfortably and then unslung the quiver from my back. I put the arrows in the quiver and then placed the cap on top so the arrows wouldn't fall all over the place when I would transform. I was proud of my work, and I was extremely proud of my charge's work. I looked down at my exhausted charge and asked, "Want to go home?"

"You have no idea," Jon muttered. "We should paint your bow tomorrow."

"What color do you have in mind?" I asked, hoping that he'd say black.

"Black," he said. "It's your color and if you're fighting in a dark place or at night, it'll be hard for the Decepticons to spot where you are."

"I love that logic." I replied with a smile. I transformed into my alt mode and opened the passengers door. Jon got in and I drove out of the training room through the hole in the wall that Ratchet had created by throwing Bulkhead through. I then drove out of the base, and I headed for Jon's home.

**Authors Note:**

**Theme Song for this chapter is "Stronger" by Kanye West **


	10. Chapter 10

**Authors Note:**

**I would like to thank McCrane55 for favoriting this story.**

**Before we begin: A secret will be revealed and friendships will be challenged (nah, not really), but a secret will be revealed. **

Chapter 10

A New Game

**Jon's POV**

To say I was excited for the baseball tournament in Las Vegas would be an understatement. I was completely stoked. Yes I had missed a couple of games due to my run in with Skyquake in the shadow zone, but now I was back to being one hundred percent! I was ready to play baseball once more, but there was more to it than me simply playing a game. This was my chance to get scouted by big name colleges and maybe even some MLB teams if I was lucky enough. Shadestalker would be coming too, "in order to ensure my safety" is what Optimus said. I was glad that my guardian was coming with, otherwise I don't think that I would've had anybody to talk to. The rest of the team still didn't like talking to me because one I was a sophomore, two I was a rich kid, and three I kept to myself. I was alright with the arrangement, they showed me respect now and didn't dis where I came from or my family name, for which I was grateful. I just hoped that when Shade came he would also come as Phil Shade, his holoform.

Shade was driving me to the school right now and I asked, "Will you be coming as you are now, or will you be coming as Phil Shade?"

"To Las Vegas? I'll probably come as both." Shade replied.

"How?"

"Your mom said something about picking me up and driving me to the tournament," Shade answered. "In other words, your mom is coming."

"Will that feel weird?"

"Will what feel weird?"

"The fact that someone else is driving you."

"Optimus did it if you remember," Shade said. "I won't feel it because all of my being will be in my holoform."

"That makes sense I suppose." I said.

"Will we be the home team at all during the tourney?"

"At least twice," I answered. "Why you want to hear my walk up song all the time?"

"I like your human songs, thank you," Shade sniffed. "And I like your song the most."

"What is there to like about it?" I asked curious about what Shade thought about human music.

"Well, for one, I like the beat that the bass gives out," Shade answered. "I also like the lyrics."

"It isn't a bass," I said. "There are just two people in that band."

"Interesting, I didn't know that," Shade said. "I think you should have a home run song too."

"Like they do in the big leagues?" I laughed. "Yeah right, we're lucky enough to have walk up songs."

"Ya never know." Shade said. We drove in silence the rest of the way to the school, which was only about three or so minutes. Shade's holoform appeared in the drivers seat and he looked over at me, "You ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be." I answered. I got out and was glad that all of my things were in the school already because there wasn't any space in the Lamborghini Gallardo form that Shade had. A lot of kids were staring at Shade's holoform and me when we got out and we ignored them.

"How long of a ride is it to Vegas?" Shade asked me.

"Close to two and a half hours." I replied.

"What will we do on the bus ride there?"

"Watch movies, listen to music, be teenagers."

"Great." Shade mumbled.

The two of us reached the top of the steps leading up into the school and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I had a funny feeling that I was being watched. I turned around and Shade looked at me. "You comin?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah, you go on ahead," I said. "I'll be right in."

"Alright," Shade said. "Just remember Coach Ramirez wants us in the locker room by eight thirty."

"I know I will be." I reassured Shade. My guardian went inside the school and I looked around one last time to see if I was being watched. I glanced up towards the sky and saw some weird looking drone thing flying in the air and I squinted at it trying to get a better view of it. The drone flew away and I was left wondering who sent it and what its purpose was. I turned around and went inside the school. I headed to the locker room and went straight to my locker.

I took my backpack out of there, along with my baseball-traveling bag, and quickly searched through it. I found the box I was looking for and I checked to make sure that nobody else was around. I opened the box to make sure that the two things that I always had were still in there, and they were. I closed the box and put it back in my backpack. "Jon?"

I jumped in surprise and my heartbeat increased a little bit. I looked and saw that it was only Shade's holoform. "Hey, Shade." I greeted.

"What did ya jump for?" he asked crossing his arms and leaning against the lockers.

"I didn't think that anybody else was in here," I replied truthfully. "You surprised me."

"What's in the box you put back in your backpack?" Shade asked.

"Nothing important," I lied. "I'll tell you later when it's just the two of us."

"Uh-huh," Shade said unconvinced. "But I'll hold you to that promise."

Shade turned and left, leaving me alone. I felt a bit guilty hiding the contents of that box from him, but it was a burden that no one should have to bear besides my family and me.

**Shadestalker's POV**

As I left Jon alone, I knew instantly that he was hiding something from me. When the Decepticons had followed us when we first had met, Jon had said that there were two things in that box that would help with survival. I thought about calling his mother and asking her what was in the box, but I did not want to betray Jon's trust in me again. The rest of the team arrived in the locker room and I went back to my locker. I took my traveling bag out of it and headed out to the coach bus with the team. Jon was ahead of me talking to Coach Ramirez. We all boarded the bus and Jon headed towards the back seat. I sat down in front of him and the coach stood in the front and took attendance. "Now that everybody's here, I'd like to welcome back Jon and Phil," Ramirez said. "In the upcoming tournament the batting order will be the same as it always is. Phil, you'll be pitching the first game that we play. We will be the home team for the first game and our third game. If we win three of our four games we move on to the semis. We only need to win one game there, gentlemen, then one more to reach the championship game. We have not won that in thirty years. Make it count." Ramirez stopped talking and went to go sit down; he stopped himself and said, "One more thing, they will be allowing home run songs. If anyone wants a different song other than his walk up song to be his home run song, text me, tell me what point you want the song to start, and I'll be happy. If not, continue doing whatever it is you teenagers do."

The coach bus started and drove away from the school. I looked over at Jon and saw that he was taking his phone out. He put headphones in and closed his eyes. Going into recharge wasn't such a bad idea, so I followed suit and closed my optics.

When we got to Vegas, I was surprised at what mankind could build. There were buildings taller than I had ever seen before built by human hands. We got to our hotel and were assigned roommates. I was assigned with Jon, and that was it. I didn't mind, and I don't think that he minded either. We headed up to our room and Jon set his stuff on one queen sized bed and I took the other. "We're alone right now." I said.

"So?" Jon asked.

"Your promise, you said that when the two of us were alone you'd tell me what was in the box." I said.

Jon's face fell from an expression of excitement to sadness. "I did." Jon said sullenly. "It's not something that you'll like to hear." Jon sat down on the bed and unzipped his backpack. He took out the black box and unlocked it. He looked at me with sad eyes and I felt regret for bringing the subject up. "Sit next to me, and I'll open the box." Jon said.

I complied and sat down next to him. "What could possibly be in there that makes you so melancholy?" I asked.

Jon opened the box and showed me. "These." he said sadly. There were two vials in there and I didn't understand.

"I don't understand, what are they?"

"I have a heart condition, I'm not expected to live past sixteen and a half years old," Jon said. "What's inside the vials, you ask? Hopefully my keys to survival. If I ever feel faint or weak, I need to be administered one of these immediately. The clear, odorless, liquid inside should stabilize me. If I'm in a dangerous position, they're also highly explosive."

"How long until you're sixteen and a half?" I asked quietly.

"I turned sixteen when school started," Jon answered. "I've known you for roughly four months." Jon paused and looked at me. "I have about two months left, at least."

"There has to be a permanent cure!"

"Not unless I end up like Iron Man." Jon sighed.

"Who?"

"A fictional superhero."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Just my mother and father," Jon said. "Now you."

"I'm so sorry." I apologized.

"We all have to die sometime," Jon replied. "Mine a bit sooner than I had wanted."

"I swear to you that I will do everything I can to find a way to help you." I promised. "We'll get you healthy."

"Don't make promises that you can't keep." Jon said. He looked at the clock in the room and said, "We should change into our uniforms, we'll be leaving for the field in half an hour."

"What about all of your future plans that you told me?" I asked. "Where those a pile of scrap?"

"It was to help sell the deception," Jon answered. "To make it appear that I wasn't dying, that I'm not dying."

I looked at my charge in shock and shook my head in dismay. I changed into the black baseball uniform and sat down on my bed. Jon was changed as well and the two of us headed downstairs to the lobby from our seventeenth story hotel room.

**Jon's POV**

I can't believe that I had told my best friend that! What the hell was I thinking? Apparently I wasn't thinking, that was my problem! We were now heading over to the baseball field where we would be playing our first game, and man was I now nervous. Forget all of the scouts; they'd be useless in two months time anyway. I had sold the deception long enough to make myself forget about my condition. We got to the baseball field, did our warm-ups, and watched our opponent do theirs. "You feeling alright?" Coach Ramirez asked me in the dugout.

"I'm fine." I replied sounding harsh. I apologized and said, "Sorry, I'm just feeling a bit stressed."

"I would be surprised if you weren't, there are scouts from Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas A&M, USC, and other D1 schools here." Coach replied. "Just do your best, kid, and I'm sure we'll be fine."

The first half of the first ended with Shade's holoform striking out the side in nine pitches. A good start, but also unfair because of the advantage that Shade had over everyone here. We got a lead off double to start the inning, then we weren't able to capitalize on that. The next three batters struck out, then flew out, and finally grounded out to short. The first half of the second inning ended the same way as the first, except in twelve pitches instead of nine. I was to lead off the bottom of the second, and I got out of the dugout and walked into the batter's box. I got into my stance and took ball one, then ball two, then ball three. The pitches were close to the strike zone, the opposing pitcher just couldn't get a call. I was now locked on for the fastball that would be coming in the middle of the plate. The pitch came, I swung, and the ball soared out of the park for a home run. I listened as my home run song started playing where I had requested it to start playing, as I jogged around the bases. _I'm waking up I feel it in my bones/Enough to make my systems blow/Welcome to the new age, to the new age/Welcome to the new age, to the new age. _I stopped at home plate and picked up my bat. I returned to the dugout and sat back down on the bench. I waited for the inning to end and when it did, we held a three nothing lead.

The game ended with the score being 5-0. Shade threw eighteen strike outs on sixty six pitches in six innings. He basically threw a perfect game, he had no hits, no errors committed by the defense, and no walks. I finished the night 2-4 with a HR, a 2B, and three RBI's. I struck out once and flew out the other time. We all headed back to the hotel and I immediately went back to the room Shade and I shared. I took a shower and lay on the bed. I was lying there on the bed when Shade came in. "Good game." he said.

"Same to you." I replied. "I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"Before we left Jasper, I felt as if something or someone was watching me. I looked up at the sky and saw a drone looking thing," I said. "I don't know how big it was, it was too high to tell."

"My guess is that it was Soundwave." Shade said changing out of his uniform.

"The Con that never speaks?"

Shade's holoform turned around and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "You know this how?" he asked.

"I hear the others talking." I replied.

"You're too observable." Shade said.

"Can't help it," I said with a slight shrug. "Better get some rest, our second game is tomorrow."

"We're stuck here for how long?"

"Four days," I answered. "We have two games tomorrow and then one on Wednesday."

"Slag, I don't know if I'll be able to stay that long."

"I can cover for you if you do have to leave," I said. "I'll just say you're in the hotel room sick."

"Thanks, that'll help," Shade said. "I could always show myself to coach and explain myself."

"I don't think Optimus would be thrilled about that." I said laughing.

"No, he wouldn't." Shade laughed as well.

Tuesday came and went, I saw my mom in the stands both games and that absolutely made my day knowing that she was watching me. We won both games. Out first game we one in eight innings 6-5. I went 4-6, going for the cycle in order, and 3 RBI's. The second game we won 3-0, I went 3-3, with two singles, and a three bagger, a walk, two stolen bases and 1 RBI. I was in the talks for being the tournaments MVP with a batting average of .629, 2 HR's, 7 RBI's, and 2 SB's. I couldn't have bed happier. The team as a whole was batting around three forty, which was unheard of. Our pitching rotation had an ERA of .25, 40K's 2BB's, and an opponent's batting average of .018.

I was having the time of my baseball life during these three games, besides the Little League World Series championship game, this was the most fun I had ever had.

**Authors Note:**

**As a reminder the abbreviations for baseball will be down below:**

**HR: home run**

**SB: stolen base**

**ERA: earned run average **

**RBI: runs batted in**

**2B: double or second baseman**

**K: strikeout**

**BB: base on balls (a walk)**

**The theme song for this chapter is: "Down With the Sickness" by Disturbed**

**Please R&R, reviews are encouraging. I don't own the lyrics to "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons. Peace out.**

**Fuzz**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

A Difficult Choice

**Jon's POV**

I woke up early on Wednesday morning and I went out onto the balcony outside of the room I shared with Shade's holoform. The sun was still down and I was looking over the city and the lights the buildings had. I leaned against the railing of the balcony and let out a sigh of contentment. I heard a weird hovering sound and looked up to see the drone thing again. "Hello, Soundwave." I ventured. "Why are you here? If you're going to kidnap me or kill me, I say do it now while no one's awake."

The drone flew away and I sat down on a chair. If that had been Soundwave why didn't he kidnapped me? I watched the sunrise over the mountains in the distance before I went back inside the hotel room. I went into the bathroom and turned the faucet on. I waited for the water to get cold before I splashed it onto my face, fully waking me up. I then went back to the bed I had been using and sat back down on it. We had at least one more game after the one we'd play at eleven. It was seven right now and we left in three hours for the field. One question kept running through my mind, why hadn't Soundwave done anything to me?

**No One's POV**

_On Board the Nemesis_

Soundwave bridged himself back on board the Decepticon warship to share his findings with his master, Lord Megatron. He walked from the ground bridge to the bridge of the ship and found Lord Megatron standing at the controls looking out the viewport. "What is it, Soundwave?" Megatron asked.

"Find that human child." Soundwave played back the orders from earlier.

Megatron turned around and looked at the faceless mech. "Did you find him?" he asked.

Soundwave nodded. "Hello, Soundwave," a semi-deep teenager's voice played. "Why are you here? If you're going to kidnap me or kill me, I say do it now while no one's awake."

Megatron chuckled. "Courageous boy," he said. "What did you find that we can use to get him on our side away from Optimus Prime and the Autobots?"

Soundwave played another recording of Jon's voice. "I have a heart condition. I'm not expected to live past sixteen and a half years old. What's inside the vials, you ask? Hopefully my keys to survival. If I ever feel faint or weak, I need to be administered one of these immediately. The clear, odorless, liquid inside should stabilize me. If I'm in a dangerous position, they're also highly explosive."

"How long until you're sixteen and a half?" Megatron was surprised to hear Shadestalker ask.

"I turned sixteen when school started," Jon answered. "I've known you for roughly four months." Jon paused. "I have about two months left, at least."

"There has to be a permanent cure!" Soundwave cut off the recording and Megatron smiled evilly. "If his spark is failing, why not simply offer him a new one?" the Decepticon warlord said evilly. "Knockout!"

"Yes, my liege?" the red Decepticon medic asked.

"I want you to make a small spark, small enough to be placed inside of a human being." Megatron ordered.

"My lord?" Knockout asked confused.

"We're going to acquire a key piece to the Decepticon cause that will know how to build our weapons that you cannot!" Megatron said. "And since Shockwave is out of commission and presumed offline, we need someone to help us get ahead of the Autobots!"

"But you despise humans!"

"This human is special, for what I have been able to learn from him," Megatron said. "At a young age he built the humans fiercest weapon, the ray gun. The metal you stole that stores our Energon and keeps the energy and reuses it, this human discovered it and created it. It is the least we can do to help him further our cause."

"Of course, Lord Megatron." Knockout said smiling.

**Jon's POV**

It was time to get ready to get ready for our first game today and I was putting my grandpa's dog tags on when Shade's holoform woke up. "Mornin." he said tiredly.

"Mornin," I said. "You should get ready."

Shade looked at his uniform and a replica materialized on his body. "Better?" he asked.

"Better."

"You sound tired, how long have you been up?" Shade asked me.

I thought for a bit before answering. "Close to five and a half hours." I said.

"What did you do, watch the sunrise?"

"I actually did." I said. "I also had an encounter with a drone."

Shade's holoform froze. "What?"

"Yeah, it was kind of freaky," I said. "It just hovered by the hotel."

"What did you do?" Shade asked.

"Asked if it was Soundwave and told it that it was going to kill me or kidnap me, that then was the time to do it because no one was awake."

"You did what!"

"Then it flew away." I said ignoring my guardian's outburst.

"Back up for a quick second, you said that you told the drone to either kidnap you or kill you?"

"No, I said that if it wanted to it should do it when everyone was asleep," I clarified. "Plus from what I've heard the others say about Soundwave, he doesn't do anything without orders from Megatron."

"Not usually, no."

"Why would Megatron be interested in me? I thought he loathed humans because we're vermin to him." I said.

"You are, I don't know what his interest in you is," Shade said. "I need to inform Optimus."

"If you really feel that's necessary."

"What else am I supposed to do? Let the Cons come for you?"

"No, I just don't want to live under solitary confinement in the base all the time." I answered. "We should head down to the lobby."

Shade's holoform nodded and the two of us made our way to the elevator. From the elevator we went down to the lobby and then boarded the coach bus. When we arrived at the field, I was pulled aside by Coach Ramirez and I looked at him questionably. "You're batting in the cleanup spot today." he said.

"Coach, I always bat in the cleanup spot." I said.

"Oh, well in that case, carry on." Coach said.

"Are you alright, coach?" I asked.

"I'm nervous for the game that'll be after this one," Coach Ramirez said. "They're undefeated and ranked first in the state."

"We'll be fine, coach." I assured him. I jogged onto the field and did my warm-ups.

The game ended at a quarter after one with us winning 1-0. I had one hit, a solo home run in the top of the sixth inning with two outs and a full count, in three at bats. Our next game wouldn't start for another two hours, but the team remained at the field. I went to the batting cage to get some practice in before the game and work a little bit on my swing, I took Shade's holoform with me to throw me pitches.

"What type of pitches would you like?" Shade asked me.

"Just slow, soft, pitches," I replied. "I'm just here to practice my swing, nothing more."

We stepped into the batting cage and I got into position at the makeshift plate. Shade went behind the protective barrier for the pitcher and reached into the bucket of baseballs. "Ready?" he asked me.

I nodded and got into my batting stance. I practiced for around half an hour before I signaled to Shade that I was good to go and that I was done practicing. "Thanks, Shade." I said.

"No problem," he replied as we got out of the batting cage. "So this next game, is it important?"

"It's to get into the Championship game." I answered.

"Think that we'll win?"

"I think that we have a decent shot."

We both walked back to our team's dugout and sat down on the bench. I opened my water bottle and took a swig from its contents. The other team arrived and started doing their warm ups, they were from Carson City. They finished their warm-ups and then our team went and did ours. By the time we finished, we were ready to play some baseball. The first inning didn't start off so well for us, we went down by two runs coming off of a two run blast to center field with two outs and the runner on third. I was leading off the top of the second and I was happy that the opposing pitcher was a lefty, so far I had been batting 1.000 against left handed pitchers this tournament and I didn't want that average to dip today. I made a cross on home plate and settled into my batting stance waiting for the pitcher to make his move. He threw the ball and I took it. It was a called ball on the bottom corner of the strike zone. I tapped the base four times and resettled into my stance and waited for the pitch. The pitcher threw the ball and I swung at this one hard. I watched the ball sail just foul down the third base line and out of the ballpark. I took the next pitch for a ball on the top inside corner of the strike zone, making the count 2-1. The next pitch I also sent foul, but this time I sent it down the first base line on a line drive. I cursed in my head wishing that I had tried to pull that one a bit more and I might have gotten in with a double. I got back into my stance and watched the pitcher closely. The ball came in hot and fast, but it was tailing away from the strike zone, so I took it. The umpire called it ball three, making it a full count. My mind was going crazy thinking of all the different scenarios that could possibly be happening. The pitcher could try and make me chase out of the strike zone, make me go down and get it, walk me, or pitch me a hittable ball. I took a deep breath and made one last cross on home plate before getting into my batting stance. The pitcher nodded, hid the ball in his glove, and then did something similar to CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees for his delivery, and I swung my bat through the zone, nailing the ball. I watched the ball sail out of the park, deep to left center field. I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I had decreased the early deficit. I jogged around the bases and then made collected my bat from the ground before heading back to the dugout. The rest of the game was now hopefully open for the rest of the team.

We won the game 4-2 in six innings. I went two for three with ground out to second base, a HR, a double, and 2 RBI's. Shade's holoform came in as a Pinch Hitter and hit the eventual game winning two shot home run in the top of the fifth inning. We were now going on to play in the Championship tomorrow. Shade was going to be pitching, so I hoped that was going to be good enough to last us at least six innings to give the offense an opportunity to win the game for us.

The rest of the day was uneventful in the aspect of sports and anything else. I could tell that my guardian was getting pretty restless not being with the rest of Team Prime, but I knew that he was happy that I was safe… for the moment anyway. I was texting my mom when Shade came into the hotel room, and he didn't look too thrilled. "What's up?" I asked him.

"Optimus has just informed me that Megatron has injured Rafael." Shade said in an emotion that I could not decipher. There was anger, worry, fear, hope, pain, and sadness in his voice; I just didn't know what to call that emotion.

"Is he alright?" I asked.

"No," Shade answered shaking his head sadly. "Ratchet said that he would keep me informed on the proceedings."  
"What about Optimus?" I asked.

"He's gone to challenge Megatron to a one-on-one duel."

I ran my left hand through my hair and said, "We need to get you back."

"What?"

"We need to get you back where you belong," I said. "Lets face it, you don't belong here with me, you belong out there with Team Prime. You don't deserve to be paired with a dying kid, you need to focus on winning the War."

"Jon, what has gotten into you?" Shade asked.

"Common sense and logic!" I said. "Raf is hurt, my health is failing, I can feel it ebbing away like a battery loosing its charge. Optimus needs a warrior out on the field with him, not some babysitter."

"Jon, I chose to be your guardian." Shade said.

"I heard a different story," I said. "My mom said that you were asked to look after me by Optimus."

"I was asked to first spy on you, remember?" Shade said. "When we saw you getting followed by Knockout and a Vehicon, I told Optimus that I would become your guardian if need be."

"That was before you knew I was a fragile, weak, person," I said. "I want you out of my life!"

"I'm not leaving until my job is done!" Shade said.

I stared at the TV across the room and started thinking. I was going to have to start thinking of a different strategy if I wanted to get Shadestalker back to the Autobots and involved in the war effort. None came to me, and my current strategy sure as hell wasn't working. "Fine," I said. "Lets make a deal."

"What are you talking about now?"

"This will guarantee that your job is done, and that I'm safe," I said. "We play this last game together, you bring my mother and I home, and then you leave us there. The agency will protect me from MECH and my father."

"What about the Decepticons?" Shade asked.

"They don't know where I live, at least not yet anyway," I said smoothly. "If I leave the presence of the Autobots, I'll be out of the war and no concern of yours or theirs. Anyway, I'll be dead in two months time."

"Don't talk like that."  
"Why?" I demanded. "Why not tell you the truth? Why not speak my mind? Why not say what others will not say? Just because I'm living on a short leash doesn't mean that I have to cower and be afraid of it! I'm embracing life to the fullest and if the Decepticons do find me, what damage can they do to me if I'll be dead anyway? They'd be doing me a favor by killing me!"

"Jon!" Shade exclaimed.

"It's true and you and I both know it," I said. "So don't deny that. The Decepticons don't know that I have a heart condition and they don't know that if they track me down it'll be of little consequence to Team Prime anyway."

"I really wish you wouldn't say such things." Shade said sitting down on his bead.

"Someone has to say the things that no one else will say." I said looking at my best friend.

"That's true."

"So do we have a deal?" I asked. "You return me home, I live the rest of my life in peace away from war and you win your war and destroy the Decepticons. Deal?"

Shade thought for a moment and looked away from me for a brief second before returning his gaze upon me. His normally calm blue eyes were set with a fierce determination. "Deal." he said.

"We talk of this deal to no one else," I said firmly. "If the other Autobots ask, I chose to leave Team Prime behind because it's getting too stressful."

"Agreed." Shade said. "Are we home or away tomorrow?"

"Home I believe." I answered.

"I want to hear your songs one last time."

"Believe me when I say this," I said. "So do I."

The rest of the day was spent watching TV and ordering room service. We both went to bed at around nine o'clock pm, because tomorrow was an early game at ten in the morning. We woke up when our alarm went off at seven and I rolled out of bed with a groan. I could definitely feel my health slipping away. I reached into my backpack and took out one of the vials that contained my medicine. I took a sip from one of them and I instantly felt better. I was less fatigued and I knew that I would be fine today. I looked at what was left in the vial and saw the meager amount that was left. I closed my eyes and I felt fear for the first time in a long time, fear the most potent thing that a human being can ever feel. I put the vial back and changed into my black uniform. I lay back on my bed and looked up at the ceiling.

It was time to head to the baseball diamond and I was excited to do so. This was going to be my first Championship game since the Little League World Series. We got to the field and went through our warm-ups, watched the opposing team go through theirs and Coach gave the umps our batting order and our pitcher. It was the same batting order that we had used all year when I was in the lineup and Shade was confirmed as our starting pitcher. The top of the first started right where Shade had left off his last game, striking out the side on ten pitches. The opposing team's pitcher was a right-hander and a senior. He could supposedly throw over ninety mph and throw a mean curve. Our first two batters struck out and our third got out on a line drive to shallow right field. Shade struck out the side again with twelve pitches this time and I was leading off the bottom of the second inning. The intro to "Seven Nation Army" started playing and I walked up to the batters box. I made a cross on home plate and settled into my stance. I looked at the pitcher and tried to discern the pitch before he even threw it. The pitcher nodded his head and settled into his pitchers stance. He threw the ball and had a delivery similar to Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers. It was a fastball and it was bearing down and away, but still in the zone. I swung the bat and connected with the ball. I ran towards first base and was in there safely with a lead off single to shallow center field. I got a decent sized lead off of first base and stole second on the first pitch of the next at bat. My teammate was walked and Severson walked up to the plate with "Back for More" as his walk up song. I watched his stance and it reminded me of Jhonny Peralta's of the Detroit Tigers. He swung and missed on the first pitch. I got a good lead off of second and stole third base with ease on a dropped ball. Ronaldo didn't advance on the dropped ball, so the double play was still an option with runners at the corners and nobody out. Severson swung and grounded into a 6-4-3 double play while I scored from third. The inning ended on another ground ball but we had the lead going into the third with Shade pitching a perfect game. We didn't score another run until the bottom of the fourth inning when Severson homered to deep right. The next half inning I robbed a home run and Shade struck out the other two batters. We were held scoreless the next half inning and Shade struck out the side in the top of the sixth to seal the deal for us winning the Championship. We rushed the pitcher's mound and enveloped Shade in a mass pit of chaos of players and coaches. Shade had thrown two perfect games in his two tournament starts that was unheard of, even if he was an alien using a holoform. I finished the game two for three with a strike out and a walk, two stolen bases, and a run. I got the tournament's MVP award with a batting average of .636 5 HR, 10 RBI, and 4 SB.

We went back to the hotel and packed our things. From there we headed back to Jasper, NV. I looked at Shade and nodded. We got out of the coach bus and headed inside the school. I turned in all of the equipment that the school had lent me and then went my own way. Shade did the same thing and he followed me to where my mom was waiting with Shade's Lamborghini form.

"I am so proud of you." my mom said embracing me.

"Thanks mom." I said hugging her back.

"Shade told me of your deal that the two of you agreed upon. If you really feel that it is necessary, I'll support you." my mom said softly.

"I know." I said just as softly.

"I gotta go hun," my mom said. "Work is busy ever since Silas went off the charts."

"What's he up to?" I asked curious.

"We're not sure," my mom answered. "I'll see you whenever I can, be safe!"

"I will mom."

A black SUV pulled up and my mom got in. The SUV drove off and I got inside of Shade's alt mode. He got in as well and disabled his holoform. "You one hundred percent sure that you want to do this?" he asked.

"I'm certain," I answered. "Just take me home."

Shade complied and drove me home.

**Shadestalker's POV**

I was saddened that Jon no longer wanted to be a part of Team Prime, but I respected his choice. I informed the rest of the Team that Jon wanted to be left alone away from the war because he was sick of all the violence and didn't want any part of it anymore. I was heartened to know that Rafael was doing a whole lot better than he had been when Jon and I had been in Las Vegas. I was standing in the main room next to Ratchet when he got a strange signal. "Optimus." the medic called.

"What is it, old friend?" Optimus asked walking over to the two of us.

"We're being hailed."

"From whom?" I asked.

"Megatron." Optimus said darkly.

"What!" I blurted.

"Let the signal through, Ratchet," Optimus said. The medic complied, grudgingly and I don't blame him. "What do you want Megatron?"

"Why simply to gloat, Prime," Megatron replied appearing on our screen. "What is the point of a victory if you don't have an enemy to squash it with?"

"What do you mean, Megatron?" Ratchet asked.

In answer an aerial view of Jon's house came up on the screen. "Why this, medic," Megatron replied. "One of your precious human pets will soon be one of ours."

Optimus terminated the link and had Ratchet ground bridge the rest of the Team, and the kids, back to base. "Jon is in trouble," Optimus said. "Autobots, roll out."

Ratchet opened a ground bridge and all of us, minus the humans and Ratchet, ran through the bridge and came out the other side. We were met with carnage. "Whoa," Bulkhead said. "What happened here?"

There was the sound of gunfire and I drew my swords from my back as we headed towards the sound. We found a couple of Decepticon scouts offline in the back yard with a large blast hole in their spark compartment. We heard a single shot go off and then saw a Vehicon go down without his head. The Decepticons then saw us and charged. I sheathed my swords and got out my bow. I guess now would be the first time I would ever use it. I popped my quiver open and nocked an arrow onto the string and fired at an approaching Vehicon. The Con went down with an arrow lodged in his spark. So far so good. I repeated the process and took out two more Cons. "ENOUGH!" a commanding voice bellowed.

I immediately knocked an arrow and spun towards the source. I saw Megatron holding in his hand a cage. "That's a small cage," I remarked. "I think your head will fit nicely inside of it."

"Oh, it is not for me, Shadestalker," Megatron smirked. "It is for your human pet."

I drew the string back and said, "Don't count on it."

"Oh, but I will," Megatron said. "Barricade, come on out."

No, it couldn't be, not here. Megatron was bluffing! He had to be! A mech as large as Breakdown emerged from the trees holding Arcee by the throat with his cannon at her head. My spark froze at the sight. "Let her go, Megatron." Optimus said walking forward and stopping next to me, coming from wherever he had just come from.

"I will let the femme go, on one condition," Megatron said evilly. "But you already know that price, don't you Optimus?"

Optimus narrowed his eyes at the Decepticon warlord and I sensed that he was about to reply, but instead there came a response that none of the Autobots, including myself, expected. "Let her go, Megadouche," Jon's voice yelled out. "If it's me you want, then it's me you'll get."

I turned and saw my charge emerge from the house, he was holding a rocket launcher and smeared in Energon. I couldn't help but think where he had gotten the bazooka. "Ah, if it isn't the guest of honor." Megatron said.

"Funny since this is where I live," Jon said. "I don't remember inviting you or your creepy lookin friends."

Megatron chuckled. "You've got some bearings for a youngling who's about to die." he said.

"You threaten a human child?" Optimus asked outraged.

"No, it's the truth of the matter," Megatron said. "It is no threat. Soundwave if you'd please play the recording."

Soundwave emerged from hiding and a recording played: "I have a heart condition. I'm not expected to live past sixteen and a half years old. What's inside the vials, you ask? Hopefully my keys to survival. If I ever feel faint or weak, I need to be administered one of these immediately. The clear, odorless, liquid inside should stabilize me. If I'm in a dangerous position, they're also highly explosive."

"How long until you're sixteen and a half?"

"I turned sixteen when school started," Jon answered. "I've known you for roughly four months." Jon paused. "I have about two months left, at least."

The recording ended and my spark skipped a beat, the Decepticons had known about Jon's heart condition! "You see, Jon," Megatron said. "I offer you a chance to be a part of something greater than yourself, join the Decepticons or perish."

"What is more beautiful than death?" Jon asked. "Death is equal, it is unbiased. It does not care if you are rich or poor, old or young. In the end it is the only thing that matters and Megatron, I do not fear that darkness. I will go to see my creator and from Him I will gain eternal life."

"If that is the case, I will present you with another option," Megatron said as if he were expecting that answer. "Join the Decepticons or the femme dies."

"Deception is in Decepticons," Jon said. "How will I know that you'll keep your word?"

"Soundwave, take possession of the femme." Megatron ordered. Soundwave did as he was ordered to do and Barricade stepped aside. "Soundwave, do not kill the femme if Jon comes with us."

Soundwave nodded and I knew that Megatron was dead serious. Jon jumped down onto my shoulder and whispered, "Find me." Then he jumped off. Jon approached Megatron who then set the cage down on the ground. Jon walked right in and Megatron lifted up the cage and closed it.

"Soundwave, get us back to the _Nemesis_." Megatron ordered. Soundwave nodded and a ground bridge opened behind Megatron. I locked optics with Jon and he gave me a nod. I nodded back and I had no idea how I was going to explain this one to his mother. Soundwave threw Arcee back to us and then retreated through the ground bridge with the rest of the Decepticons as we fired at them. I took down one more before the bridge closed.

"Optimus, we have to get him back!" I said.

"Did that just happen?" Bulkhead asked in shock at the same time.

"We will get Jon back from the Decepticons," Optimus swore to us. "We owe him a debt for saving one of our own."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Desperation

**Shadestalker's POV**

I collected all the arrows that I had shot and placed them back in the quiver. My charge was gone once again, even though he had said that he wanted nothing more to do with this war, he still stuck his own neck out for Arcee. Bulkhead approached me and placed his servo on my shoulder. "We'll get the kid back, don't worry Shade," he said. "We'll find the Cons and get him back."

"He no longer wanted to be a part of the war." I told Bulkhead.

"I'm sure the Cons won't harm him if they need him."

"That makes me feel better." I muttered somewhat sarcastically.

The rest of the Team assembled around me and I felt uncomfortable. "I take it that's the little project that the two of you had been working on?" Arcee asked.

"Yeah, it was his idea for me to use a bow," I answered looking at Arcee. "Jon said that it'd be more efficient and I'd burn through less Energon."

"Smart kid, but I'd trust my guns any day." Bulkhead said.

"You're also a former Wrecker." I pointed out with a small chuckle.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Bulkhead asked.

"Nothing at the moment."

"Is it true that Jon has a heart condition?" Bumblebee chirped.

"Unfortunately, you know Soundwave, he can't fabricate his own recordings." I replied.

"I just wonder what Megatron will do to the poor kid." Bee chirped sadly.

We all looked down at the ground sadly and Optimus called Ratchet for a ground bridge. He debriefed the medic after we got back and I went to the training room to clear my head. I had brought with me a deactivated Vehicon to use as a target. I set up a backdrop of spare scrap metal and stood the dead trooper up against the metal. I activated my bow and nocked an arrow. I was glad I had drained the Energon before hand because I was going right for the spark. I drew back and released the string and quickly nocked another arrow as I heard the thud of my last arrow hit its target. I sighted down the shaft of the arrow and pulled the string back. Still sighting down the arrow, I aimed at the visor and released the string. "So this is where you come to blow off some steam?"

I whipped around and saw Arcee leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed. "And you don't?" I asked thinking of all the destroyed targets we had because of Arcee being beyond ticked off.

"You're blowing off a different kind of steam than I usually do, Shade," Arcee said standing up and walking towards me. "While you were gone I almost lost Jack to an Insecticon on Cybertron. I almost went crazy thinking that I had failed him. He pulled through in the end and I'm sure that Jon'll do the same."

"Restoring Prime's memories after he defeated Unicron?" I asked.

"How…"

"Did I know?" I finished. Arcee nodded. "I listen to things. I heard Bulk and Bee talkin about it earlier. I think that if Jack were a Cybertronian, he'd be a Prime."

"Jon would be one too, I'm sure." Arcee said.

"I doubt it, Jon wouldn't take that type of power," I said. "He wouldn't even allow the baseball coach to name him team captain."

"Primes don't choose, they're chosen." Arcee said.

"Why are you really here?" I asked.

"I'm concerned about you," Arcee answered. "The last time Jon went missing you said you felt like a failure. It wasn't your fault then and it isn't your fault now. If anyone is to blame, it's me for getting caught in the first place."

"You don't need to worry about my, 'Cee," I said. "If I ever find Megatron all alone someplace, I'm going to shoot him with this arrow." I drew an arrow that had a red shaft with black fletchings and a black arrowhead.

"Why that one?"

"I found some Tox-En in my chambers, a bit left over from the War," I answered. "I placed some liquid Tox-En inside the shaft and the arrowhead is lodge into the body and slowly leak the Tox-En into the Energon lines."

"A poison shot that he can't take out." Arcee mused.

"Exactly." I said grimly setting the arrow carefully back in my quiver.

"What happened to you, Shade?" Arcee asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" I asked looking at the femme.

"You used to be an upbeat mech full of energy and happiness, now you're brooding and distant." Arcee said.

"The Pits changed me," I answered softly. "When I was taken by the slaver and forced into that caste, that's what changed me. It was change or die, 'Cee. What do you honestly remember about our youngling years together at the academy? All younglings are full of that energy and happiness. The Gladiatorial Pits will make you wish you were never born. Then the War came. First I fought for the Decepticons to end the injustices of the Pits and the corruption but as the War progressed, I saw Megatron for what he truly was and defected to the Autobots. Barricade was my best friend before the War broke out, then we distanced after he got a taste for killing. He became one of the most ruthless mechs Cybertron has ever known and now that he's here on earth, I don't think that this will end well."

"Everything will work out in the end, you'll see," Arcee said. "We didn't think we could get Optimus back, but we did."

"Ultra Magnus is still out there somewhere, if he were to come to this planet I think we'd have a better shot at winning this War." I said.

"What makes you say that?"

"He was tutored under Prime, commanded the Wreckers, was a general for the army while we still had one, and not to mention he's good with tactics, not as good as Prowl was but still good." I answered.

"You really admire him, don't you?" Arcee asked teasingly.

"I admire his prowess as a warrior, not as a control freak." I corrected. Arcee and I both chuckled and I looked at the femme and said, "Thanks for coming to see me, it actually helped."

"Anytime, Shade," Arcee said with a slight smile. "Anytime."

The femme left and I was left alone once again. I looked up at the ceiling and cracked a smile thinking of the smart aft comments Jon must be making aboard the Decepticon warship.

**Jon's POV**

After I was brought on the Decepticon warship I looked at Megatron and asked sarcastically, "So all powerful and mighty leader of the Decepticon army, what do you plan to do with a feeble minded, weak, infidel, of a human?"

"All will be explained to you in due time," Megatron answered. "But be satisfied knowing that when I conquer your pathetic planet, you will be spared enslavement."

I snorted in grim amusement. "Good one," I said. "I'd be forced to serve you anyway if you conquered earth."

"Knockout." Megatron called.

A red mech came in and it looked like the paint scheme of the Aston Martin that had followed me. "Yes, my liege?" the mech replied in a suave voice.

"Take our guest to his quarters and make sure he's comftorable." Megatron ordered handing the cage to the red mech.

"As you command, Lord Megatron."

The red mech walked out of the room and into a corridor and I looked up at him. "So, ever been knocked out, Knockout?" I asked casually.

"I'm a medic not a warrior," Knockout said indignantly. "I stay away from the field."

"That's not what I've heard." I responded.

"Smart kid, now here're your quarters squishy."

I looked at the room and it was Cybertronian sized and filled with engine parts, tools, and welding equipment. "Who did you steal all of this from?" I asked.

"As much as we Decepticons loathe you fleshlings, we do have those that are loyal to us and our cause." Knockout answered.

"So it was donated?" I asked in disbelief.

"When we revealed the real mastermind behind the ray gun and cortosisium metal to be Jon Peterson, a sixteen year old youngling, instead of his parents, you'd be surprised how many of this was donated when we said that we were opening a shop for you to work in," Knockout said. "You gained a lot of fans."

"How did you find out that I was the one that was truly behind the success of the ray gun and cortosisium metal?" I asked curious.

"I told them."

I froze and turned to the sound of the familiar voice. Standing there in body armor was a familiar figure. "You!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

"Aye, it was me lad that led the Decepticons to take interest in you."

I felt an immense amount of rage building up and a sense of loss and betrayal, because the figure standing before me now was my mentor…André.

**Shadestalker's POV**

A single day had now gone by since the Cons had abducted Jon. I was still trying to focus my energy in locating my lost ex-charge, but I wasn't getting anywhere. I hadn't recharged in that day and I was exhausted. "You should go and recharge, Shadestalker."

I turned away from the computer and saw Optimus standing behind me. "Sorry sir, but I won't rest until I have Jon safe and sound." I said.

"The Decepticons won't hurt Jon if they can use him," Optimus said. "Go get some Energon and then recharge, that's an order."

I nodded slowly and stepped away from the computer. "Yes, sir." I said. I went to the Energon storage and grabbed an Energon cube to use. I drank it and then headed to my quarters. Although I had been a killer since I was a youngling, I loathed it and wondered what my life would've been like if I hadn't taken the shortcut home after school that one day. It was only due to my background as a gladiator that I had risen through the ranks of the Decepticons quickly to warrior. Once I had defected to the Autobots, I had kept my rank of warrior even though I was no older than Bumblebee. He was the equivalent of a sixteen-year-old human, and I was the equivalent of an eighteen year old. I sat down on my berth and pinched the bridge of my nose in thought. I had to remain hopeful that Jon was fine, I had to otherwise I'd go insane.

**Jon's POV**

"You're surprised to see me?" André asked me mockingly as Knockout left the room.

"You mother…"

"Watch your language here." André chastised me.

I glared at one whom I had called mentor and friend. "Bastard." I spat in hate.

"You alright?" he asked me.

"Let me out of this cage and you'll see just how alright I am." I challenged.

André chuckled and shook his head. "Now now, Jonathon, we don't want you making rash decisions here." he said.

"By the time you think that you believe you have my cooperation, I'll be dead," I promised. "And you'll be with me."

"You ever killed a man?"

"Now's a good time to start." I growled.

"My name isn't Andrew or André," my former mentor said. "Would you like to know what it is?"

"Lying bastard? Two-Face? Heartless? A man without honor? No balls?" I rattled off.

My old mentors eyes blazed with anger at my insults. "Listen here, youngling, I don't need to listen to these insults…"

"No, my father said something similar before he was arrested the first time," I interrupted. "But you're an oath breaker and a traitor, should the Cons really trust you?"

"My real name is Jeff McDonald," the man in front of me said angrily. "And you will build weapons for the Decepticons."

I snorted in amusement. "Keep dreaming there, dipshit," I said. "I'm not going to help them conquer this planet."

"Jon Peterson, do you fear death?"

"What person doesn't?" I asked.

"The Decepticons can replace your heart with something that will respond only to you, your body will not reject the transplant," Jeff said. "If you help the Decepticon cause, they'll give you a new heart."

A complex scheme started working in my mind and I looked at Jeff and asked, "What insurance do I have that the Decepticons won't place a safety mechanism in this new heart that my body supposedly will not reject?"

"The fact that you'll remain loyal to the Decepticon cause."

"Let me talk to your leader and I'll negotiate with him on my deal." I said not trusting this man.

"There's no need to discuss it with Lord Megatron."

"Trust me, there is." I said darkly.

"Then I'll go get him."

"No need," I got a cold feeling running down my spine with the sound of that voice. "I have arrived to broker the deal myself now knowing that our guest wants to join us."

I turned in my cage and faced the gigantic robot. "I want some sort of insurance that you won't place a detonator in the heart or poison in the heart," I said. "So that when you're done with me you can just cast me aside."

"I understand," Megatron said. "I'll take you to the Undying Sparks."

"The what now?"

"A place where you make an oath that cannot be broken."

"Anything that is said, written, or anything can be broken," I said. "Look at the idiot behind me, he broke his oaths to his country by joining you."

"Very true, but with the Undying Sparks you make a promise and keep it, or die." Megatron said.

"I take it that it's somewhere on Cybertron?"

"Indeed, we'll set out as soon as you're ready."

"I'm ready whenever you are," I said. "Although I hypothesize that Cybertron's atmosphere is different than earths."

"Correct, fleshling," Megatron said. "So that is why you'll be going in a specially designed cage where you'll have only good air."

"Let me guess, those giant glass canisters with the odd lids that you can twist," I said. "And if you sense any trickery on my part you simply expose me to the toxic atmosphere of your planet."

"You are a clever fleshling."

"I just know what to expect from you."

"Soundwave, prepare the space bridge." Megatron ordered through what I'm guessing was the Cons comlink. The warlord turned to me and said, "Remember that if you break your promise, you will die."

"How do I know that isn't a lie?" I challenged.

"There's only one way to find out then isn't there?" Megatron asked.

"Lets get to it." I said.

**Shadestalker's POV**

I woke up from my recharge and immediately went back to the main room and to the computer. I nodded a greeting at Ratchet and started scanning for the Decepticon warship. All of a sudden something interesting caught my attention. "Hey, Ratchet." I called.

"What is it, Shadestalker?" the medic asked.

"I think I might have found something," I said. "A large spike of Energon being exposed and then vanishing."

"Where?" Ratchet asked walking over to me.

"Believe it or not, the same place we found the Forge of Solus Prime and then lost it." I said.

"What have the two of you found?"

I turned around and saw Optimus walking towards Ratchet and me. "I found an odd spike in our Energon detector like a bunch of it had been exposed for a few seconds and then disappeared." I said.

"Where did you find it?"

"Where we found the Forge." Ratchet said.

"Shadestalker, come with me," Optimus ordered. "Ratchet prepare the ground bridge."

Ratchet walked over to the controls for the ground bridge while Optimus and I stood at the entrance of the bridge. "Weapons at the ready, sir?" I asked.

Optimus nodded and activated his cannons. I drew my swords from my back and closed my battle mask. Ratchet opened the ground bridge and looked at Optimus and me. "Be careful." he said.

"Will do, old friend." Optimus said as he walked forward.

I followed the Prime and emerged next to him surrounded by Cons. "What a mess." I said.

"Indeed." Optimus agreed closing his battle mask.

I charged the Decepticons and swung my blades through a Vehicon. I dodged blaster fire and weaved through the red haze that the Energon was creating. I swung my blades around and held them in a reverse grip, I sort of preferred this style now over the conventional way now. I had watched Jon play a video game where the main character held his swords like this. Jon had told me the game was called Star Wars: the Force Unleashed Two.

I glimpsed a Vehicon approaching me from behind in another's visor, and I brought my arms so that my hands were optic level and then I swiftly brought them down. I felt Energon splash onto my servos and I turned around, keeping my swords in the Con. The Con collapsed onto its knees and I asked, "Where is Jon Peterson?"

"I ain't telling you Autobot scum anything." the Vehicon spat.

"Tell me where he is and I'll ease your passing." I said darkly pushing down on one of the swords stuck in his abdominal region. The Con groaned in pain and I looked down at him coldly. "Where. Is. He?"

"He's…he's with Lord…Lord Megatron." the Con gasped.

I pulled one of the swords out and held it in my right servo. "That still isn't good enough," I growled. "You'll have to be more specific."

"Shadestalker! What in the name of the Alspark are you doing?" Optimus demanded.

"Getting results," I said looking at my leader as he approached. "And don't get in my way."

"This is not the Autobot way, Shadestalker," Optimus said. "We do not torture our prisoners."

"No? Yet we let the Cons do that to our own ranks," I said. "I'm trying to save lives here, not go after Megatron and face him one-on-one like Ratchet did when the SynthEn got him. You always tell us to protect mankind, Optimus, yet when I'm trying to do something to save a human being, you stop me. Make up your mind already, Prime, do we keep doing things the way that will eventually lead us to lose this War and this planet? Or do we do the hard things that must be done to protect the inhabitants of this planet from Megatron and the Decepticons?"

"If the two of you are done bickering," the Con said before Optimus could respond. "The human is going to be on our side soon enough. All he has to do is pledge loyalty to Lord Megatron."

I looked back at the dying Con and asked, "What do you mean?"

"The Undying Sparks."

I pulled the other sword out of the Con and then chopped his head off. "Was he lying?" I asked turning towards Optimus.

"No, he wasn't."

Optimus and I turned around and saw Megatron standing behind us holding a glass cage with Jon inside of it. I sheathed my swords and drew my bow. "Let the boy go, Megatron." Optimus said.

"I actually enjoy this one's company," Megatron said. "I think I'll keep him."

I nocked an arrow and drew the string back. "Last chance, Megatron," I said. "Let him go or die here."

"The boy doesn't believe me about the Undying Sparks oaths," Megatron said casually ignoring my threat. "Tell him Optimus, tell him what happens if you break the oath you speak before it."

Optimus narrowed his optics and I sighted down the shaft of the arrow. "You die." Optimus said.

"Would the two of you like a copy of our oaths?" Megatron laughed. A ground bridge opened and Barricade came through followed by scores of Decepticon drones. "That is if you survive." A separate ground bridge opened up behind Megatron and he backed up into it and disappeared with Jon in tow.

I turned my bow towards Barricade and let the string go. Barricade drew his sword from his back and deflected the arrow. I pushed the button on my bow and then stuck it to the quiver when it was down to size. I unsheathed my swords and Barricade's sword became a double-ended sword. It was similar to Sentinel Prime's sword before he perished in the War, I was half expecting Barricade to have a shield like Sentinel Prime had too. I was dimly aware of Optimus engaging the drones and a ground bridge opening. I charged forward at Barricade and swung the sword in my left servo at Barricade's helm and the other at his legs.

Barricade blocked the blows easily with his double-ended sword and he counterattacked with attacks of his own. We went back and forth for a bit, each trying to gain the upper hand. I pressed forward and kicked Barricade in the chassis, moving him back a step or two. I followed that up with a powerful swing that clove his sword in two. I backed up and spun my swords in my servos. Barricade's red optics met my blue optics and we stared at one another. Another ground bridge opened up behind me and I saw Optimus running towards me with Arcee, Bee, and Bulk with him. "Until next time, Shadestalker," Barricade said. "Until next time." He transformed into a police car and drove off.

I was tempted to follow him, but I stayed put. "Shadestalker, are you alright?" Optimus asked.

I retracted my battle mask and looked at my comrades. "I'm fine for now, lets go see what Megatron was talking about," I said. "I want to see what Jon did."

"I have received word from Ratchet that a video was sent to us from the Decepticon warship," Optimus said. "For now let us be content knowing none of us got injured."

"At the moment." Arcee remarked.

I let out a small huff of amusement knowing what the femme meant. If we had gotten back with an injury, we'd never had heard the end of it from Ratchet. We all walked through the bridge and came back to base. Ratchet closed the bridge once we were all safely across and in the base. "Prime said that you got a message from the Cons." I said.

"Indeed I did, it's a video message." Ratchet said.

"Don't make us wait, play it." Bulkhead said.

Ratchet nodded and pressed a button and a recording popped up. It looked like a temple back on Cybertron, and I knew exactly where it was and what it was. The Temple of the 13, the original Primes. It showed Megatron holding Jon in a cage, like we had seen back where the fighting had just occurred, in front of an alter. "_What is this place?" Jon asked. _

_"This, fleshling, is the Temple of the Thirteen," Megatron answered. "Inside of this alter are the thirteen sparks of the original Primes which make up the Undying Sparks."_

_"What do I do?" Jon asked. _

_"Make a pledge of fealty to the Decepticon cause." _

Everything in the base almost stopped when we heard that. "No." I whispered.

_Jon looked at the alter and asked, "You'll swear that you won't harm my mother or me?"_

_"I'll swear that." Megatron said. _

_"I would like confirmation before I pledge my life to your cause." Jon said._

_"Very well, fleshling," Megatron said. "I, Lord Megatron leader of the Decepticon army, swear before the Altar of the Thirteen and in the presence of the Undying Sparks, not to harm this boy's mother or to tamper with his heart."_

_"I, Jonathon Peterson, swear before the Altar of the Thirteen and in the presence of the Undying Sparks to serve Lord Megatron and the Decepticon cause while I still have my heart." Jon said. _

_A blinding flash of blue energy emitter from the altar and enveloped Megatron and the cage with which Jon was inside. The light vanished and Megatron looked down at Jon with an evil smile. "Very good, fleshling, very good," he said. "Welcome to the Decepticons."_

The video ended and I gripped a railing to keep myself from falling. "That can't be true," I muttered. "Jon…why would he…" I ended up collapsing onto my knees anyway.

I felt a servo on my shoulder and looked up to see Arcee looking at me sadly. "Maybe the Cons promised him a new heart." she said.

"Why would he turn against his friends for that?" I whispered. Was this the feeling Jon had gotten when I had called him and told him that Agent Fowler was coming for his family? Was this the feeling of betrayal and rage?

"Who knows what could have motivated Jon to go to the Decepticons, but as we all know Megatron can be quite convincing." Ratchet said.

"Prime!"

"What is it Agent Fowler?" Optimus asked.

"We have a mole in the agency, apparently Jon's mentor works for the Cons." Fowler said over the line.

"What does that have to do with anything? We don't deal with humans unless it's MECH." Bulkhead said.

"We found files that lead us to believe that this André character is really a Jeff McDonald," Fowler said. "And two ton, to answer your question, it was probably that human that led the Cons to take an interest in Jon Peterson anyway."

"How's the Director taking this?" Arcee asked.

"She's ordered a kill on sight for the traitor Jeff McDonald," Agent Fowler said. "And she's worried for the well being of her son…"

Everyone in the room went silent. Besides me, nobody else had known of Jon's relationship to the agency. "Hold on a second, Jon's mother is the Director?" Arcee asked.

"By Uncle Sam's beard I did not mean for that to slip out," Fowler said in a worried tone. "But yes, Arcee, she is Jon's mother."

"What do you exactly expect us to do about this Jeff?" Ratchet asked.

"You find him, you find the boy," Fowler said. "Fowler out."

"Well, this is an interesting development." Arcee said wryly.

"There's still one thing I don't understand." I said standing up.

"What is it?" Bee asked.

"What did Megatron mean by saying that he wouldn't tamper with Jon's heart?"


	13. Chapter 13

**Authors Note: I would like to thank Dragonjg, Novanto, and yorkmanic89 for the faves and follows. I would also like to thank zrexheartz for the review.**

Chapter 13

Conditioning for Escape

_On board the _Nemesis

I was pacing around this gigantic room trying to figure out what to do. I now understood completely that until the Decepticons replaced my heart that I'd have to do what they wanted me to do without question. After my oath at the Temple of the Thirteen, I had been somewhat shaken by the fact that I had sworn fealty to a warlord that wants to conquer earth. I hadn't seen André, sorry Jeff, since I had gotten back on board this wretched ship. I was itching for a fight, but I didn't know what my chances of winning were. I ended up sitting next to an arc welder and looked at all the lathes. I grabbed a piece of scrap metal that was cylinder shaped, three feet long, and had a six-inch diameter. I went over to a lathe that I thought would work for the metal material that I had and attached the piece of scrap metal securely to it. I put on a mask that would shield my face from the pieces of metal that I would be removing and then started the lathe. I grabbed a tool that I needed and got to work removing some of the excess metal off of the material. I wanted the piece to get down to a two-inch diameter from its original six inch.

Once I whittled it down to its new diameter, I let the metal cool off for a little while before I removed it from the lathe. I brought the metal cylinder of scrap over to a sideways drill press. I found a drill bit that I liked and centered it on the end of the metal. I placed the drill bit in the press and started boring a hole into the metal. I finished with that task and set the metal on a bench. How exactly did Cybertronians make explosives?

**Shadestalker's POV**

I was in my quarters still trying to think what Megatron meant when he said that he wouldn't mess with Jon's heart. I still couldn't believe that Jon would join the Decepticons, I wouldn't believe it. I heard a knock at my door and I sighed. Thinking I knew who it was I said, "Look, I just need to think these things over. I'll be fine, Arcee."

"It's not Arcee." Optimus answered.

"Scrap." I muttered to myself. I stood up off my berth and opened the door. Optimus was standing there with Ratchet and I knew that this was probably turn into a full psychological eval. "What is it, sir?" I asked.

"We need your help with Bumblebee." Optimus said.

"What's wrong?" I asked worriedly.

"He's disappeared."

"What? Where? When?"

"It happened a little over three hours ago," Optimus said. "We sent Bumblebee and Arcee on an Energon scouting mission and only Arcee came back. She says all that she can remember is a black fist and then blacking out."

"Send me to the coordinates, I have an idea of what may of happened." I said.

"Follow us." Ratchet said.

Arcee was sitting down on a box when we got into the room and when she saw us enter she stood up. "I'm so sorry, Shade," the femme said. "I…"

"It's alright, Arcee," I interrupted. "Everything will be ok. I don't blame you for my little brother's disappearance. Bee knows how to take care of himself."

Arcee nodded and I looked over at Optimus and Ratchet. "The coordinates ready?" I asked.

Ratchet nodded and opened the ground bridge. "Stay in radio contact," Optimus said. "It may be a trap."

"It most likely is," I said. "That's why I don't want anyone else coming."

"You don't have a…"

"With all due respect, Optimus," I said. "Barricade's the one that probably took Bee. He's probably got loads of Cons with him and if it is a trap, which I'm guessing with one hundred percent certainty that it is, they'll be expecting only me. If anyone else comes, Barricade will have snipers take them out as soon as they come out of the ground bridge."

"That sounds like Barricade." Bulkhead said.

Optimus frowned and looked at me for a couple of seconds. "Very well," he said. "But keep your radio on and be ready to be bridged out when you've retrieved Bumblebee."

"Will do, sir." I said. I had a nagging suspicion that there was something that the rest of the Team wasn't telling me, but I put that aside for now. My main objective at the moment was saving my little brother. Ratchet opened the ground bridge and I transformed into my alt mode and drove through.

Once I got to the other side, I instantly saw Cons. I transformed and looked at them. "Where's Barricade?" I asked.

"You alone, Autobot scum?" a Vehicon asked.

"Does it look like I have company?" I retorted.

The Decepticon drones eyed me wearily and finally the one that had spoken to me earlier said, "Follow me, Autobot." There were sounds of cannons coming online and I knew that the drones behind me had all pointed them at me.

"Like I have a choice." I muttered. I looked around the area and took in the scenery. There were a lot of trees and rocks that I could potentially use if I had to fight my way out of here. On the other hand, there were a lot of trees and rocks that the Cons could use for cover. I was led to a cliff that overlooked a waterfall and there in stasis cuffs was my little brother, Bee. He had two guards with him and Barricade was standing over to the right.

"So nice of you to join us here, Shadestalker." Barricade said turning around to face the arriving Decepticon troops and me. He looked directly at the Con who had spoken to me and asked, "Did he come alone?"

"He did, sir," the Vehicon reported. "He was the only one, we didn't need our snipers after all."

I snorted in amusement and Barricade looked at me. "What makes this situation funny to you?" he asked.

"Just the fact that you're so predictable," I sneered. "I knew that you'd have snipers to take out members of my Team if I brought them with, that's why I came alone."

Barricade got right in my face and said, "Nay, Shadestalker, it is you who is the predictable one."

"I guess we just know each other too well, eh?" I said looking into Barricade's crimson optics.

"It appears that way." Barricade said stepping back.

"I do have one question though, what would your master want with a Scout and an Autobot warrior?" I asked.

"The Scout was bait to lure you here…"

"That parts obvious." I interrupted.

"What Lord Megatron wants with you is to reunite you with your charge."

My spark skipped a beat and I looked at Barricade with a cold stare. "Why would he do that when he's got an entire army to do that job?"

"Jon doesn't trust any of them," Barricade said. "He said that there are only a handful of Cybertronians that he could trust and most of them were Autobots."

"Most?"

"He apparently trusts only Soundwave and Dreadwing."

"Dreadwing's here?"

"Optimus Prime did not tell you that? Ha! That's precious, after Skyquake was defeated in battle by Optimus and the Scout, Dreadwing made his way here."

I glanced over at Bumblebee and his optics locked onto mine for a split second. He gave me a brief nod and I looked at Barricade. "I'll have to decline Megatron's offer," I said. "You know how much I hated working for that guy." A ground bridge opened and the rest of Team Prime came through with weapons out and at the ready. I kicked Barricade in the chassis and drew my swords. I killed a Con that was next to me and advanced towards Barricade.

"This will be the only opportunity that you'll get to rejoin us, Shade." Barricade said.

"I chose my path long ago." I replied charging at my ex-friend. I leapt into the air and swung my swords. Barricade drew his own sword and parried my attacks. We fought back and forth, each nicking the other. I locked blades with Barricade and stepped forward, forcing him back. I head-butted Barricade and he stumbled back. I rolled and swept my right hand sword in a small slice while I rolled. Barricade roared in pain and I got back onto my feet. Barricade turned around to face me and stumbled. I had severed a cable on the back of his left calf, what the humans would've called the Achilles tendon. I advanced towards Barricade and easily blocked a cut from his sword. I kicked the sword out of his hand and cut the back of his right thigh. Barricade collapsed onto his knees and I looked down at him. "For the sake of our past friendship, I'll spare your life this one time." I said. I flourished my swords and then sheathed them and returned to the rest of my team as a ground bridge opened. We went through and I cast a last glance at Barricade. I saw that two Vehicons were helping him up.

Ratchet closed the ground bridge and looked at everyone. "Shadestalker, to the med bay." the medic ordered when he saw some energon leaking out of me.

"They're just scratches, Ratch," I said. "None are serious."

"All the same, we'd better weld those up, unless you want them to potentially get infected." Ratchet said crossing his arms.

I huffed in annoyance and said, "Alright, fine, we'll do it your way."

I followed the medic to the med bay and sat down on a berth while Ratchet went to get some healing supplies. Arcee, Bulkhead, Bee, and Optimus came in and looked at me. "Why didn't you scrap Barricade?" Bulkhead asked.

"It wouldn't have felt right," I said. "He was defenseless. I'm not going to offline anyone that's defenseless."

"For that I am proud of you, Shadestalker," Optimus said. I looked up at the Prime in surprise and blinked a couple of times. "You have a line that you will not cross and however tempting that it may be, you did not cross it today."

"Maybe we'll have to start crossing those lines if we want to win this war," I said. "I heard an interesting thing from Barricade today. He said that Dreadwing is here on earth."

"He is." Optimus acknowledged.

"How long until his sense of honor takes out one of us?" I asked.

**Jon's POV**

I got the formula that I needed to make explosives from Knock Out, although I think he didn't trust me. I reminded him that I swore an oath to remain faithful to the Decepticon cause and he huffed and went back to buffing out his "scratches" in his finish.

I made the explosives and placed them inside of the container that I had made. I finished my making a detonator and the spark that would set off the explosive. I set the chip that had the thing that would create the spark inside with the explosives, before I welded a top onto the container. I heard the door open and I turned around. Jeff came in along with Megatron and Soundwave. "Lord Megatron," I said bowing. "What brings you to my humble abode?"

"I wish to see you fight." Megatron said.

I stiffened and said, "My Lord, I am a human, extremely weak when compared to your species. I could not possibly fight for you."

"You'll find a way to fight for me," Megatron said smoothly. "You'll make something that will enable you to control drones and you will fight the Autobots."

A lot of emotions were surging through my body, but I kept a strait face. "As you wish." I said grimly.

Megatron snapped and Jeff stepped forward and tossed me a pair or MMA gloves. I caught them and put them on. I removed my shirt and tightened the gloves. I then took my shoes and socks off and set them aside. Jeff took his shirt, shoes and socks off as well and put on his own set of gloves. "What are the rules?" I asked Megatron.

"Tap out or knockout." Megatron answered.

"Sounds good." I growled and pounded my gloves together.

Jeff pounded his gloves together as well and we advanced towards each other. For being over fifty, Jeff was in extraordinary shape. He had a body that kids my age would kill for. I had never seen him fight, but my mom had told me when I was younger that he was a formidable fighter. When we got within striking range of each other, Jeff threw a right hook at me followed by a left jab. I evaded the hook and blocked the jab. I swung a right uppercut at Jeff and caught him on the chin. I then hit him with a shin strike to his ribs. Jeff backed up and got into a better stance. He placed all of his weight on his back heel and I shifted so that it was barely noticeable. As Jeff went for a heavy punch, I dropped down and delivered a low roundhouse kick to his front leg. I stood up as Jeff fell down and I waited for him to get back up. I had put it in my mind that I was not going to make him tap out; I was going to knock this traitor out!

Jeff got back up and I noticed a change in the way he looked at me. He was looking to make me submit to him or knock me out. As soon as he got up, I delivered a butterfly kick to his head. He stumbled back a bit and I advanced. I threw a right jab at his head followed by a left hook at his kidney. He blocked the jab, but missed the hook. Jeff then attacked with a vicious barrage of punches, kicks, and elbows. I managed to block the ones coming at my face, but I missed a couple when the landed on my ribs and gut. I disengaged and took a step back. I struck Jeff on the side of his left knee and dropped to avoid the retaliation punch. I got back up and kicked him head on the left knee this time and I felt something give. Jeff backed up and then delivered a punch that I didn't see coming. It connected with my face and I felt blood come onto my face. I immediately threw my guard back up and withstood the barrage. An idea hit me and I thought that it was ludicrous at first, and the more I thought about it the crazier it seemed. _First lower guard and wait for him to attack. As he punches forward towards my face, spin towards his left side and execute an elbow strike to the side of his head, right below the temple. Thus, with him disoriented, I strike and dislocate his left knee with a heel strike from the back. Second, as he's on the ground, deliver roundhouse kick to the temple, knocking him out, _I thought. I took a deep breath and dropped my guard. As Jeff moved to take advantage of the opening I had now created, I spun on my right foot and elbowed him on the side of his head. Jeff stumbled and I kicked the back is his knee. Jeff cried out in pain and in shock and knelt onto the floor. I fulfilled the second part of my plan with a well-placed roundhouse kick to his right temple and Jeff collapsed, unconscious, onto the floor in a heap. I had accomplished all of that in under five seconds and I was panting from the fight. I heard clapping and turned to its source.

Megatron looked down at me and said, "That would have been a fight fit for the Pits of Kaon. You never cease to amaze me, human, with your abilities. Where did you learn that technique?"

"In all honesty, from a movie." I said thinking about Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. I looked into Megatron's crimson eyes and asked, "When will I get my new heart that you promised me?"

"Tomorrow." Megatron said. He turned and left the room and Soundwave snaked out a tentacle and wrapped it around Jeff before he walked out, leaving me alone.

"Perfect," I grumbled. "Just perfect."

_The Next Day_

I had just emerged from my heart transplant or whatever the Decepticons had done to me and I now knew that I was free to break my oath and not die. To me this technically was not my heart, it was not the one I had been born with, it was not the one that I had lived my life with, and it was not the one that I had struggled with. This wasn't my heart it was the Decepticons.

I felt different somehow as well, I couldn't put my finger on it, but I just knew in my gut that something else had changed about me as well. I was lying on the medical bed when Megatron and Knock Out came to see me. "How is the little squishy doing?" Knock Out asked coyly.

"I'm alright," I replied my throat aching from having had breathing tubes forced down it. "What did you do to the heart so I don't have to take medication to insure that my body won't reject the transplant?"

"We infused your DNA with the spark that we created for you," Knock Out said. "That way your organic body will recognize it as your own."

Something caught my attention. "Hold up, you said spark," I said. "What do you mean?"

"Instead of an organic heart like the one that would've killed you," Knock Out said somewhat impatiently. "We created a human sized spark, like we Cybertronians have, so that you would not have any more defects."

I suddenly realized what I felt was odd about my body. "My blood is being turned into Energon, isn't it?" I asked looking at Megatron first, then at Knock Out.

"Of a sort, we had to experiment first to get it done right," Knock Out said. "Not all of the test subjects survived."

My jaw clenched in anger and in hate at what the Decepticons had done to innocent people just so they could get me as their prize. I felt an immense sense of self-loathing believing that it was my fault that the people had died. "And those that didn't die?" I managed to ask.

"Who would believe people that say they have been abducted by giant robot aliens?" Knock Out asked.

"Don't worry, we didn't kill or harm any of more of your species than was necessary." Megatron said.

"Of course, my Lord Megatron," I said bowing my head. "Forgive me for insinuating that you'd be unmerciful and kill where there was no need for it."

"No need to apologize, Jon," Megatron said. "Just get your rest."

"I will, my Lord," I said. "Doctor, when will I be able to perform at my highest level of physical activity?"

"The spark and Energon will enable you to recover faster, so within the next two days." Knock Out answered.

"Good to know, thank you." I said. The two Decepticons left my quarters and I was now more determined than ever to get off this wretched ship.

**Shadestalker's POV**

I was in the training room, working on honing in my skills with my bow, when Arcee came in. "We have a situation." she said.

I pressed the button that would compress my bow down to a cylinder that I could hold in my hand and turned to face the fierce femme. "What kind of situation?" I asked crossing my arms.

"Optimus captured the man that led the Cons to Jon." Arcee said.

"How is that a situation?" I asked. "That's good news."

"Fowler's agency wants him."

"I take it that Optimus doesn't want to give him up?"

Arcee shook her helm. "Not yet," she said. "He wants to see if he'll talk."

I snorted. "I doubt it," I said skeptically. "He worked for Megatron, he should be used to threats."

"He's our only lead to find Jon." Arcee pointed out.

"Bring me to him."

Arcee nodded and led me to a room that was a minute's walk from the training center. "We're here." the femme said. I sat down and closed my optics. "What are you doing?"

I cracked open an optic and said, "I'm going to activate my holoform and see if I can get any information out of him." I closed my optic and my holoform appeared. I rolled my neck and looked up at Arcee. "Could you be kind enough to open my chest?"

"What?"

"There's something in there that I can use."

Arcee rolled her optics, but did what I had asked. She raised an optic ridge and looked down at me. She reached into my chest cavity and pulled out Jon's longbow and quiver. "These what you're looking for?" she asked as she knelt down and handed them to me.

"Bingo." I said as I took the two things. The quiver was filled with arrows and I strapped the quiver to my waist. "Wish me luck."

"I don't think you'll need luck." Arcee said.

I winked at Arcee and entered the room. I saw the man that Jon had trusted tied to a chair and I walked forward. "Hello, Jeff." I said.

"Is this to be my interrogation?" the man asked in a bored tone.

"Execution." I replied coldly nocking an arrow to the string of Jon's longbow.

**Jon's POV**

I got off of my bed and I smiled with a bit of happiness and a bit of scorn. Knock Out had been wrong it had been more like two hours, not two days. I placed my right hand over my chest and felt a strong heartbeat. I walked over to the explosive that I had made and moved it. I grabbed another cylinder and started working. If I were to get out of here and survive, I would need to make sure my plan would be flawless. I ended up making three more of those explosives in the next hour and I decided that I need a big one.

I created a giant sphere mold, that had a diameter of four feet, and I then cut it into halves. I filled one half with molten metal and waited for it to cool down. With the other half, I used just enough molten metal to fill the mold so that it would form a hollow shell. When the two halves cooled down, I placed the explosive material inside of the hollow half and placed shrapnel inside there as well. I then managed to connect the two halves and weld them together, once more forming a complete sphere. I made a remote detonator and placed the other component that would cause the explosive to explode and smiled confidently. "Time to get off this vessel." I muttered. I looked towards the door and with probably guards posted outside; I'd need to do my next build discretely.

I managed to build a com unit out of an old radio and I honed onto the Autobot's frequency. "Jon to Autobots, do you copy?" I asked. I was answered with static. "Jon to Autobots, do you copy?"

"Jon!" I was met by. It was Bulkhead.

"Bulkhead, thank God!" I breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm stuck on the Cons ship, can you lock onto these coordinates and get me the hell out of here?"

There was more static and I silently cursed. "Jon, this is Ratchet, I've locked onto your coordinates. The ground bridge should be there shortly."

"Good, because I've rigged some explosives to go off once I get off this ship." I said. A ground bridge opened and I held the remote detonator. "Sayonara, bitches." I said hitting the detonator. The explosives went off and I dove through the ground bridge. The bridge closed and I was back in the Autobot base. Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Optimus were the Autobots there to greet me. Jack and Miko were the only humans present.

"Welcome back, Jon," Optimus said. "I am glad to see that you are unharmed."

"For the most part." I said. I looked over at Ratchet and said, "There's something that you'll need to take a look at, doc."

"What?"

"It's hard to explain."

"What about the kid's oath?" Bulkhead asked.

"That was for only as long as I had my heart within me, I no longer have my biological heart." I answered.

"What?" Ratchet gasped.

"I've been outfitted with a human sized spark," I said. "My blood has been turned into Energon."

Ratchet scanned me and his eyes widened in shock. "What have the Decepticons done to you?"

"I don't know," I answered. "I just know that I'm not the only one they've done this to."

"They've done this to other humans?"

"To perfect the spark so that it'd adapt to a human body," I said my voice growing somber. "Not all of the test subjects…not all of them survived the testing." The room went deathly quiet. "It's all my fault," I said choking up. I felt tears gathering in my eyes. "They died because of me, and those that survived are some science project gone wrong…all because of me. It's my fault that those people died." I closed my eyes and I felt the tears slip out from under my eyelids. "They died so that I could live. The Decepticons used them to perfect the procedure, to perfect everything! How many families have been torn apart now because of me?"

"Bulkhead, take the children home." Optimus ordered. I broke down fully. My chest was raked with sobs and chokes. Tears ran down my cheeks and I couldn't help but feel the guilt, the anguish of the situation, the shame, and the horror. "Jon," Optimus' strong voice brought me somewhat out of my spiraling pit of despair. "It was not your fault that the other humans died. The fault lies with Megatron."

"How…how can you be so…so certain?" I choked.

"Megatron does not care for those that he believes to be weak," Optimus said gently. "He saw the other humans as a means to an end and exploited it. It is unfortunate what happened to the other humans, but it is not your fault."

I looked up at Optimus, his blue and red body blurred by the tears in my eyes. "It may not be my fault, but I still feel guilty." I said. My chest and shoulders still shook with sobs. I took a couple of deep breaths and regained a bit of my composure. "Where's Shade?"

**Shadestalker's POV**

I drew the string back and Jeff looked up. His eyes widened in shock and I let the string go. The arrow went wide and graced his left cheek. "Oops, I missed," I said advancing a couple of steps. I stopped and nocked another arrow. "Lets see if I can kill you this time." I repeated the process and this time I missed and scraped his right cheek. "Don't worry, one of these times I'll get it right."

"Stop! Please, I beg you!" Jeff screeched.

"Why should I?" I asked.

"…"

"If you have information that I could possibly use to find Jon and break the oath he has without killing him, I won't kill you." I said glaring at the man.

"Who are you?" Jeff asked.

"Shadestalker," I answered. "Holoform, and I swear to you that I will kill you here and now if you don't spill your guts!"

"All I know is that Jon's on board the Decepticon warship." Jeff wailed.

"We all know that," I said examining my fingers. "I need something better. You know that his mother issued a kill order on you, right?"

"She did?" Jeff gulped.

"Yep, she knows that you're a traitor." I replied coldly. I looked up from my fingers and glared at the man. "How could you betray the family that loved you? The child that looked up to you? You are a man without honor. You must be the most pathetic excuse of life that I have ever-laid optics on! It's a wonder why I don't kill you now."

"I can be useful."

"I doubt that, we already know that Megatron is looking for relics," I said harshly. "What could you possibly offer us that we could trust? You've broken so many oaths, what's to stop you from breaking more?"

"Nothing," Jeff said. "But Barricade is working on another project, something big."

"Spill it." I said.

"Why should I? You said that I'm a dead man."

"Alright, we'll send you to the agency you betrayed." I said turning to leave.

"Barricade is working on finding your base with Soundwave."

I stopped and turned to face the man. "That's hardly news." I said. I then turned once more and exited the room. I deactivated my holoform and stood up.

"Get anything?" Arcee asked.

"Nothing that we didn't already know." I sighed.

"While you were in there, I received word that Jon's back."

"Is he?" I asked in surprise. "Well that's good. Where is he?"

"The main room for now," Arcee replied. "He'll be moved to the med bay for examination."

"Then that's where I'll meet him."

**Jon's POV**

No one answered my question and I sighed and shook my head. "Never mind," I said. "He'll find me in his own time."

"We should take you to the med bay for examinations." Ratchet said.

"I concur," I said. "You have every right to know what the Cons did to me. I don't even fully understand what's going on inside my body with a spark instead of a heart."

Ratchet led me into the med bay and I was overjoyed when I saw a familiar black mech. "Shadestalker!" I exclaimed happily.

"Hey, kid." Shade said slyly.

"It's nice to see you again."

"Ditto."

"Now that the reunion is fully here, can I examine you or not?" Ratchet asked me.

"Oh, sorry Ratchet." I apologized.

Ratchet scanned me and read over the results. "All of your vitals seem to be fine, better than they have been before," he said. "What I fully don't understand is why the Decepticons decided to use a spark instead of a heart."

"Maybe they thought that by infusing my DNA with it that it would make it an easier transplant," I suggested. "That's at least what Megatron and Knock Out told me."

"For the time being, I suggest that you remain here and stay with us," Optimus said. "Megatron will most certainly be out looking for you again now that you have escaped his control."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Metamorphosis

_On the _Nemesis

Megatron was standing in what remained of the quarters that had belonged to Jon Peterson. The Decepticon leader was furious. "What do you mean the human did this?" Megatron snarled at the guards who had been posted at the door when Jon had escaped.

"Who else could have done it, Lord Megatron? The Autobots can't find this ship unless someone on board tells them our location." one of the Vehicons said nervously.

"What I want to know is how that child outsmarted us!"

"My Lord, if I may." Dreadwing said.

"What is it, Dreadwing?" Megatron asked turning to face his Second in Command.

"Perhaps the human child when he said his oath at the Temple of the Thirteen meant that his biological heart was the one he was swearing on." Dreadwing said.

Soundwave stepped forward and played the recording of Jon's voice: _I,_ _Jonathon Peterson, swear before the Altar of the Thirteen and in the presence of the Undying Sparks to serve Lord Megatron and the Decepticon cause while I still have my heart._

"While I still have my heart." Dreadwing emphasized.

Megatron turned his attention back to the two Vehicons and said, "I will deal with the two of you later." He turned back and faced Dreadwing and Soundwave. "For now our main concern is finding these relics."

**Jon's POV**

"What do you mean I have to live here?" I questioned in shock.

"It is for your own safety, Jon," Optimus said. "The Decepticons know where you live, it would be suicide to place you back there."

"What about my mother?"

"She will be protected."

"How?"

"She will move in with her agency to be there full time."

"What's to stop Megatron from breaking his oath and ordering the Cons to hunt her down and hurt her?"

"His fear of death."

"How do we know he didn't pull the same stunt I did?"

"Megatron may be cunning, but I do not believe that he would have thought of that until now." Optimus said.

"Alright, fine, I guess that I'll just have to take your word for it." I said still unconvinced. I went to the human area and sat down on the couch.

"Optimus, I think I've found coordinates for a relic." Ratchet said.

"Where, my old friend?" Optimus asked walking towards the computer.

"Midwest United States," Ratchet replied. "A state called Iowa."

"Plug the coordinates into the ground bridge," Optimus said. "Autobots, prepare to go get the relic."

Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Shade all stepped forward and looked ready to go. Ratchet opened the ground bridge and Optimus and the other four went through. Ratchet closed the ground bridge and I felt an immense pain in my stomach.

I stood up off of the couch and the pain spread all over my body. I clutched at the railing and it felt like my entire body was on fire. My vision started to go and I blinked a couple of times. It briefly came back and I stumbled to the stairs. My legs gave out from underneath me and the last thing I felt was a ripping sensation from my head to my toes.

**Shadestalker's POV**

As soon as we got through the ground bridge the sight of flat plains immediately greeted us. "What exactly are we looking for?" I asked.

"We will not know until we find the relic." Optimus answered.

As we were walking I stubbed my foot on something and looked down. I squatted down and saw Cybertronian markings on it. The thing was as big as my foot. "Optimus, I think I found it." I said. The others came over and I opened the container. Mist came out and I was getting excited. You could then imagine my disappointment when I saw that it was just a dagger. "A dagger! You've got to be kidding me! What use is a dagger!" I exclaimed in shock.

"That is the dagger of Prima." Optimus said.

"The first Prime?" I asked in disbelief.

"Correct," Optimus said. "It chooses its wielder, much like the Matrix of Leadership chooses its own."

"You should obviously have it," I said. "I mean you're the Prime."

"If it chooses me, I will keep it." Optimus said.

"How do we know how it chooses?" Bulkhead asked.

"Probably like that." Arcee said.

"What?" Bulkhead and I said at the same time. The dagger glowed a type of blue color and floated towards my right servo. I opened my hand and the dagger landed there.

"The dagger has chosen you," Optimus said. "You should feel honored."

"I feel…"

"Ratchet to the rest of the Team!" Ratchet came through on our coms. He sounded desperate.

"What is it Ratchet?" Optimus asked.

"It's Jon, he's on the floor and having convulsions! I don't know what to do! His spark rate is through the roof and he's sweating profusely." There was a pained scream. "He seems to be in an immense amount of pain!"

"Open the ground bridge, we'll be back." Optimus said.

A ground bridge opened and all five of us went through. Ratchet closed the bridge and my spark froze when I saw the sight of Jon on the floor by the stairs. His light brown hair was matted down with sweat, he was twitching, and a lot of things were going through my helm. "What's wrong with him?" I demanded.

Jon's eyes snapped open and my own optics widened in shock. His once green optics was now blue. His eyes closed again and he started to convulse. Jon's right arm below the elbow started to sizzle. The smell of burning flesh arose and I think made us all sick. "Ratchet, what is going on?" I asked.

"The Energon is poisoning him." Ratchet said. "His heart rate is off the charts, blood pressure as well." Jon started convulsing and moving around once again and then abruptly stopped. The smell of burning flesh still lingered in the air and Ratchet said sadly, "He's offlined."

"What happened to his arm?" Bulkhead asked.

I looked and saw what the Wrecker was talking about; Jon's right arm below the elbow had become metal.

**Jon's POV during the time period that the Autobots got back to base**

I was wandering around in a place that was completely blue. "What is this place?" I asked.

"The place that no one ventures to yet always end up here in the end." a booming voice said.

"Who's there?" I asked. "Where am I?"

"You are in the world beyond flesh," the voice answered. "As to who I am, you may never know the answer."

"The world beyond the flesh," I mused. "Am I dead?"

"No, not yet." the voice answered me once more.

"Is this happening because I broke my oath to the Thirteen?"

"No," the voice said. I decided that I'd just call him Frank. "This is happening because of the Energon flowing through your veins."

"I forgot that Energon is toxic to humans," I said. "What are my options Frank?"

"Optimus Prime and his Team just recovered a relic that belonged to my very first disciple," Frank said. "Once you wake the relic will choose you as its wielder."

"Huh? What are you talking about? When I asked if I was dead, you replied not yet," I said a bit confused. "Now you say when I wake, some relic will choose me. Choose me to do what with it exactly? I'm not a warrior, nor am I a medic. I think that I've figured out who you really are, Frank. You're Primus, the god of Cybertron. The original Prime."

"Indeed I am," Primus said. "Out of curiosity, why Frank?"

"Why not? It was the first name that popped into my head."

"Will you accept the relic?"

"It depends, why should I?" I asked.

I was then shown what really happened to the other humans that the Decepticons experimented on. They became human sized Cybertronians under Megatron's command. "Megatron lied when he had told you that the survivors were released. They were changed into mindless beings that now know only how to kill." Primus said sadly.

"Will that happen to me?" I asked.

"It is happening to you as we speak." Primus said.

"Is there a way for me to retain my humanity?"

"Death."

I swallowed and took a deep breath. "End it then." I said. "Please for my mother, I don't want her to lose me this way."

"Very well, but I will grant you life after death," Primus said. "So that you can release the tortured souls of those imprisoned under Megatron's iron grip, if you choose that."

"I'll accept." I said after some thought. I closed my eyes and thought, _I'm sorry mom._

"You will wake soon enough," Primus said. "Do not worry."

I opened my eyes and saw that all of the Autobots were looking at me. "Hey, what's up?" I croaked.

"Jon, you just died!" Shade said.

"Yeah and now I'm back," I said. "Nothing big."

"You just died!" Shade exclaimed. "That's not big to you?"

"People die every day." I said with a shrug.

"What about your right arm?" Arcee asked.

I looked and saw that my right arm below the elbow was metallic. I made a fist and opened it. It reminded me of a Terminator's arm after the skin was removed. "Oh, that," I said. "I wasn't expecting that."

"What happened?" Bee chirped.

"Wait, hold up," I said. "I can understand Bee now?"

"What?" Everyone but Optimus gasped in shock.

"How?" Bulkhead asked.

"I have no idea," I said. "Maybe it has something to do with my transformation."

"What happened while you were unconscious?" Optimus asked.

I told the Autobots everything that had occurred with Primus inside of my head and finished by saying, "Megatron has to have a legion of human slaves that are like me but are completely like my right arm. They've lost all humanity. My guess is that they have to have a human leader and I have an idea who that is." I looked at Shade.

"Jeff." We said together.

"We have him here in custody, what leading can be do from a cell?" Bulkhead asked.

"Are you one hundred percent sure that it's the real Jeff McDonald?" I asked.

"Of course." Ratchet said.

"Did you perform a DNA test? It could be an experiment that has a finish that looks like Jeff."

"I'll go check." Shade said.

"I'm going with you," I said. "I believe that I have every right to do so."

Shade nodded and lowered a hand. I stepped on and he placed me on his right shoulder. "Be careful." Bee chirped.

"I have a twenty foot tall alien robot on my side, what could go wrong?" I asked.

**Shadestalker's POV**

"I have a twenty foot tall alien robot on my side, what could go wrong?" Jon asked.

"A lot of things." I said.

"Then lets not have anything go wrong." Jon said.

The Dagger of Prima rose from my hip and floated in front of Jon. It glowed a light blue and shrunk to a human sized dagger. Jon extended his right hand and the dagger floated over to it. "It's yours now." I said.

"What does it do?" Jon asked.

"We are not sure." Optimus said.

"The solution should present itself eventually." Jon said optimistically.

"Shall we go check on the prisoner or not?" I asked somewhat impatient.

"Yeah, sorry, lets go." Jon said.

I walked to where I had last seen the prisoner and stopped to open the door. "You sure you wanna do this?" I asked my charge before opening the door.

"Positive." Jon said firmly.

I sighed and opened the door. My optics widened in shock, the chair was empty! Jon clambered down from my shoulder and when he reached the floor he looked around. "What are you doing?" I hissed.

"The prisoner is still within the confines of this room," Jon said. "It'll show itself eventually."

"It? Don't you mean he?" I asked.

Jon shook his head. "How many humans do you know that can perform Houdini acts that have never been trained in the art?" he asked.

"How do you know he hasn't been trained in the art?" I asked.

"I tested him without him knowing that I was testing him." Jon replied.

"Ookay."

Jon stiffened suddenly and clutched the dagger in his right hand. He signaled for me to be quiet and pointed at a corner to our left. Jon tossed the dagger into the air and it flipped so that the blade was now pointing down towards the ground. Jon threw the dagger into the corner and I heard a thud and a collapse. Jon rushed forward and pulled out a body from the shadows. It looked like a miniature Cybertronian, but more human like. The dagger was lodged in the spark chamber and Energon was leaking out. "I told you that they wouldn't send Jeff." Jon said.

"No you said that you weren't sure that it was Jeff." I corrected.

"Same difference."

I snorted in amusement and looked at the dead thing. "What is it?" I asked.

"What I would've become," Jon answered. "A human version of a Cybertronian."

I stared at the abomination in horror. "You mean," I paused and swallowed. "Humans can be cyber formed?"

"Huh?" Jon asked not knowing what I was going towards.

"Change into Cybertronians." I clarified.

"Isn't that what I just told you?" Jon huffed. "Honestly, Shade, I thought you were a better listener."

"Primus wants you to fight these human Decepticons?"

"That's what he told me to do," Jon answered. "I feel obliged to do it."

"Why?"

"Why did you join the war? It was to stop tyranny, wasn't it? I'm now fighting to stop these human Cybertronian hybrids from helping Megatron and his armies conquer my home. If you had a power to help someone, I doubt that you would sit iddally by and allow harm to fall upon them. I died, Shade, that was so I could retain my humanity and not become a mindless drone like the one I just offlined. My perspective on your war has changed and so have I," Jon said strongly. "I'm here to stay and fight for my planet and my fellow human beings."

**Authors Note:**

**Sorry for the short chapter, but I felt that the last part was just too powerful to add on to. Please R&R **


	15. Chapter 15

**Authors Note: **

**This will be the final chapter of this story. I would like to thank all of you that have shown interest in the story. I have just lost my inspiration for this story, and I feel that it is time to move on from it. **

Chapter 15

Jon's Final Battle

**Jon's POV**

Shade and I walked out of the room where the drone had been imprisoned, and I was certain that I would discover something new about my body that I had yet to learn about now. We reached the main room and Ratchet looked down at me expectantly, "Well, do you have your DNA sample?" he asked.

"It wasn't Jeff." I answered.

"How do you know?" Ratchet asked.

"Because how many humans do you know or can think of that look like a protoform?" Shade asked.

"What?" I asked.

"A youngling that has yet to obtain armor." Shade said looking down at me.

"I see." I looked up at Ratchet and asked, "Where did everyone else go?"

"Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead went to go pick up their charges from school," Ratchet answered. "And Optimus went for a drive."

"Will I ever be allowed outside of here?" I asked.

"Can you find a way to hide your new appendage?" Ratchet asked.

I looked down at my right arm below the elbow and closed my eyes. There had to be something that I could do, possibly wear long sleeves and a glove or something along those lines. "I'll think of something," I said. "I don't want to be cooped up in here forever."

"That's refreshing, because I would hate to have to listen to you ask me questions for forever." Ratchet said.

"Thanks Ratch." I said. I looked up at Shade and he pointed to the hallway and left. I followed my best friend and guardian into the hallway to see what he had to say. "What is it, Shade?"

"Will you come into the training room with me?" he asked.

"Why?"

"I want to run some tests on you to see if anything has changed." Shade said bluntly.

"Oh." I said blinking a couple of times. That had not been anything towards what I had been thinking about. I followed Shade to the training room and watched as he set up targets. "What is the purpose of those?" I asked. "I don't have a gun."

"I want to see if you have been armed or not." Shade said. I must've given him a blank stare because he shifted his right arm into a cannon.

Understanding filled me and I looked at the targets. "How will this work if I am armed?" I asked. "How will I control the transformation?"

"You must want your gun or sword to come out," Shade said smoothly. "Then it'll come out."  
"If I'm not armed?" I asked.

"Then you have nothing to worry about from these targets."

"That's comforting." I muttered to myself. I pictured my right hand becoming a gun and I wanted it to become one. I felt something weird and looked down at it. My arm shifted and a gun replaced the hand. My cannon looked a lot like Bumblebee's and I was unsure of how to fire the thing. "How do I shoot it?" I asked.

"Look at the target, visualize your shot, and think about shooting it." Shade answered.

I looked over at the former gladiator and saw that he had an amused smirk on his face. I let out a sigh and focused on the targets. I pointed my gun/arm at the target and thought about shooting it. A blue shot flew from the barrel and hit the target left of the bull's eye. I felt a little bit of exhaustion and wondered why that would be, but then I remembered that energon was the lifeblood of Transformers. It was their ammunition and their blood. I thought about my hand again and it shifted back into Terminator hand. _What about a sword?_ I thought. No sooner had I thought those words did a two foot long blade spring from where my hand had previously been. I was amazed at what it looked like. It was a double-edged sword with a nice point, but at the same time it was literally an extension of my arm. The blade was black with a silver point. I thought about retracting the blade and my hand came back. I looked up at Shadestalker and he was grinning devilishly. "What?" I demanded.

"Nothing," he said. "It's just that you're reminding me of myself when I first was armed."

"What was that like?" I asked.

"Terrifying, yet exhilarating." Shade answered his opitcs dimming a little bit.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." I said knowing that he was thinking about his days in the Pits.

"It's not your fault, Jon," Shade said. "So don't apologize for something you didn't do."  
I nodded and Shade led me out of the room to another. We stopped outside of it and I looked up at my guardian. "What's inside here?" I asked.

"It's your room." Shade answered smiling.

I opened the door and saw my bed, dresser, desk, and TV. "Thank you." I said sincerely.

"No problem," Shade said. "Anything for you to feel a little bit like you're at home."  
I was touched. No one had ever done something like this for me. "Thank you." I repeated.

"If there's anything else, just let me know." Shade said.

"There is one thing," I said looking away from him for a split second and then back at him. "I have a feeling that it'll drive Ratchet a bit insane though from what I've heard from Miko."

"I think I have an idea of where this is going," Shade said grinning. "I like it."

**Shadestalker's POV**

I was in the main room three hours later facing the wrath of Ratchet. "Why in the name of the Alspark would you bring another one of those loud noise makers in here?" the medic demanded. "Miko makes enough noise with hers it's a wonder that the Decepticons don't find our base from the racket!"

"Calm down Ratchet," I said trying to get the medic to lower his infamous wrench that he was holding in his right servo. "Jon has better reasons to play the guitar than Miko does."

"Pray tell, what are they?" Ratchet asked exasperated.

"For his mental health," I answered. "It helps him relax and forget about all of the things going on outside of his bedroom walls. The guitar and the music provides an escape for the kid."

"Bahh. If he and Miko play at the same time, I swear that there will be the Pit to pay!" Ratchet threatened.

"I understand." I said. I breathed a mental sigh of relief when Ratchet set the wrench down. "Why haven't Jack and Arcee returned yet?"

"I don't know, I can't hail them at all," Ratchet said. "They should've been back an hour ago."

The music stopped and after a couple of seconds Jon appeared from his room. "What's up?" he asked.

Ratchet and I both looked at him in shock and he looked up at us confused. "Why did you stop?" Ratchet asked.

"Why are you complaining that he stopped?" I asked jokingly.

Ratchet glared at me and looked at Jon. "You just stopped after two and a half hours of playing." Ratchet said.

"Yeah, I know," Jon replied. "My fingers were starting to get tired, and then I heard someone mention Arcee and Jack."

My jaw fell; there was no way that was possible! "But…but how…" I stammered not able to finish my question.

"How what?" Jon asked frowning.

"How did you hear our conversation?" Ratchet asked.

"I didn't know that the two of you were having one until I walked into this room," Jon said. "I just heard a voice in my head say something about Arcee and Jack."

"What did that voice say?" I asked cautiously.

"Find them and eliminate the Humicons." Jon said.

"What are Humicons?" Ratchet asked.

Jon shrugged. "I think that's what Primus has deemed the Cyberformed humans." Jon said.

"More importantly find who?" I asked.

"I thought that would be obvious if we were just talking about them," Jon said. "Jack and Arcee."

**Jon's POV**

I was looking up at the two gigantic alien robots and was waiting for a response of some kind. When none was forth coming, I looked at the ground in front of me and asked, "When were the two of 'em supposed to be back?"

"An hour ago." Shade answered me.

"Why didn't you just track Jack's phone and find out his location?" I asked.

"I…I honestly did not think of that." Ratchet said.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. How could Ratchet not even contemplate something like that? It was absurd in my mind. I released the breath and looked up at the Autobot medic. "Something could have happened to them and they could both be neck deep in scrap right now and what are we doing, we're lollygagging and dillydallying along like nothing has happened to two of our team members! They should have been back an hour ago you said, and now you're worried about them?" I unleashed upon the medic.

"You never usually know what could happen in the human world." Shade said trying to calm me down.

"Don't you even start with me Mister I'm-going-to-perform-physical-experiments-on-you," I vented. "Can we just get a move on here and see where Arcee and Jack are and if they need our assistance?"

Shade raised an optic ridge at me, but I could care less at the moment. Jack and Arcee could be in a hellhole right now and there was nothing we could do at the moment to help them out of it. Ratchet went to the computer and started searching for Jack's cell phone and I went back to my room. I found my leather jacket, put it on, and grabbed a leather glove to cover my right hand. I sat down on my bed and thought about the things that I might have to do to ensure this planet's, my friends, and my own survival. I was going to have to kill again and that prospect didn't please me. I was not a killer at heart.

**Shadestalker's POV**

After fifteen minutes or so, Jon reappeared from his room after disappearing on us. He was dressed in blue jeans, black combat styled boots, a leather jacket, and a leather glove encased his right servo. Protruding from his right boot was the hilt of the Dagger of Prima. Deep down in my spark I had a feeling that this was going to be the new Jon Peterson. I already missed the fun loving baseball kid that I had first met. I suppose a lot has changed in the four months that we had known each other, but this Jon was completely different. This Jon looked ready for a fight.

"I got a location." Ratchet said.

"Where?" Jon and I asked at the same time.

"I'll just plug in the coordinates, I'm getting a lot of Decepticon activity." Ratchet said.

"Where's Optimus?" I asked.

"He hasn't returned yet." Ratchet answered.

"I guess that it's just me, Bulk, and Bee for this one then." I said.

"No," Jon spoke up. "You forgot somebody."

"You are so not coming with us." I said.

"Bet." Jon said staring into my optics. I was still unnerved that both of his optics were now blue.

"It's too dangerous, you could get hurt."

"So could you."

"You are…"  
"Going with and that's final!" Jon interrupted.

"The two of you bicker like an old married couple." Miko said from the human platform.

Jon and I both looked at the exchange student and frowned at her. "You're coming," I conceded. "But you'll have to follow orders. If you disobey a single order, I'll have you bridged back here immediately. Do I make myself clear on that?"

"Crystal."

"Good," I said. "Ratchet open the ground bridge."

"Shadestalker, you cannot be serious about allowing a human to go into a dangerous situation willingly?" Ratchet asked in disbelief.

"I'm serious Ratchet." I answered.

"And in all technicality, I'm not one hundred percent human anymore." Jon said crossing his arms over his broad chest.

Ratchet grumbled something about how stubborn we were being, but consented and opened the ground bridged anyway. Bee, Bulkhead, and I transformed into our alt modes and Jon got inside of me. We drove through the ground bridge and we were met with a barren wasteland. There were a couple of dead Vehicons, but nothing that showed where Jack and Arcee were. Jon got out and I transformed. Bee and Bulkhead followed my lead and I followed what looked to be drag marks. I unsheathed both of my swords as quietly as I could and signaled for the others to go around the perimeter and find our friends. I looked down at Jon and whispered, "Stay close to me."

"Where else could I possibly go?" Jon whispered back as Bumblebee and Bulkhead left.

I shook my helm and I proceeded to follow the drag marks with Jon in tow. We arrived and found Airachnid with a legion of Vehicons and a legion of Cyberformed humans, which Jon had dubbed Humacons. I sheathed my swords and got my bow ready. Jon shook his head and I squinted at him. He tilted his head to the side in a quick manner and I saw Jack stuck to the side of a rock face in Airachnid's webbing. Arcee was kneeling in front of the two legions and Jack had a Humacon guard. "I'll take out the guard and get Jack free," Jon whispered. "Get Bee and Bulkhead here now and go after that creepy spider bot."

I nodded and sent Bee and Bulkhead our position and then looked down at Jon. "Be careful." I whispered to him.

"Ditto." he whispered back before slipping away.

**Jon's POV**

I approached the Humacons guarding Jack and they both looked at me and then transformed their hands into guns and started to shoot at me. I dodged the shots and unsheathed the Dagger of Prima. The blade elongated, much to my pleasant surprise, so that it became a sword. I charged forward and blocked the shots before cutting the two guards down. Jack was looking down at me with shock and I cut him down. "What are you doing here?" he asked me.

"Saving you." I replied.

"You look…different." Jack said.

"Thanks for putting it mildly," I muttered. "Now let's get the heck out of here!"

"Hello there Jonathon." I heard a familiar voice say.

I slowly turned and saw Jeff standing there with both of his hands transformed into swords with the entire legion of Humacons at his back. "Jack, get out of here and get to safety." I commanded the raven-haired teenager next to me.

"What about you?" Jack asked.

"JUST GO!" I roared.

Jack turned and ran from the scene that was unfolding and I cracked my neck by moving it from side to side. Jeff took a step forward and said, "You should have stayed with the side that will win the war for this planet. Maybe then you would have lived."  
"I would not have enjoyed living under tyranny," I said. "I would rather die than serve the Decepticons again."

"That's why I'm here." Jeff said menacingly.

"You'll just be tossed aside when the Cons don't need you," I said. "Mark my words, they will betray you."

"Consider them marked but not considered," Jeff said. "Are you done stalling your death?"

"It seems that you were the one stalling." I replied. I looked up and saw that the legion of Humacons was beneath a large stone archway and I transformed my right hand into a gun and shot at it until it broke apart. It took three quick shots before it came crashing down and crushed all of the Humacons with the exception of Jeff. I transformed my hand back into a hand and gripped the Dagger of Prima in my right hand. "It's just you and me now, traitor."

"So it is." Jeff said stepping forward. He charged me and swung both of his swordarms at me. I blocked and then dodged the attack. I counterattacked with the Dagger turned sword and fought to gain ground. We fought back and forth for a while before I had to switch tactics.

I switched the Dagger over to my left hand and transformed my right hand into a sword. I attacked Jeff and managed to drive him back a couple of steps before he stopped retreating and started to force me back under a flurry of blows. I felt a sharp pain in my gut and looked down to see that Jeff had stabbed me through the stomach and out the back. I collapsed onto my knees and he pulled out of me. "You see, Jon, this is what you get when you fight for the weak," Jeff said. "You always end up losing in the end."

I looked into my former mentor and friend's eyes and said, "No, we always win." I quickly transformed my hand into a gun and shot him in the heart. Jeff collapsed in front of me and looked shocked. "You who fight for power and control will always lose," I gasped. "It's in your nature. Megatron will fall in his time, and when he does earth will be free from his greedy grasp. There is a saying that you used to tell me when I was younger, do you remember it?" I stood up and transformed my hand into a sword. "While the darkest hour may last just that long, the lightest moments always last the longest," I said. I then spat out a glob of blood and continued. "With every passing, there is a birth. With every birth, there is a new shot at life. Even if all of your mistakes have been obliterated by a single great deed, your greatest deed may be demolished by all of your mistakes."

"Jon, please…" Jeff gasped.

"May God forgive me and may he forgive you." I said. With that said I swung my arm and decapitated the man in front of me. I walked away from the body before sitting down and resting against the rock face from where I had just gotten Jack down. I could feel my conscience slipping in and out and the voice of Primus in my head say "**You are on your way to your true home."**

I closed my eyes and smiled knowing that I had set the Humacons free from their unwanted servitude. My only regret was that I was leaving my mother alone on this planet and that I would miss her. That was my last thought before I slipped into the abyss.

**Shadestalker's POV**

After Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and I had gotten Arcee out of Airachnid's clutches, Jack came running towards the four of us. "Jack, what is it?" Arcee asked her charge.

"It's Jon, he's in trouble." Jack said.

My spark accelerated and I looked down at the human. "Lead us to him." I said. Jack led us back the way he had just come from and I saw that it was now blocked by rubble. I climbed over it and saw Jon sitting against the rock with his eyes closed and a wound in his stomach. I rushed over to him and knelt down to pick him up. I couldn't detect any sign of life from him. "Ratchet, bridge us back!" I said desperately.

A ground bridge opened and I rushed through it with Jon in my servos. I handed him to Ratchet, but the medic looked sadly at me and said, "I'm sorry Shadestalker, but there's nothing that I can do."

"What do you mean there's nothing you can do?" I demanded angrily. "This is my charge and best friend!"

"He's already dead." Ratchet said sadly.

I collapsed onto my knees and felt shock go through my system. I felt like I had just gotten my friend back, and now he was gone forever. "We should let his mother know." I said in anguish.

"We will." Arcee said.

"I failed him." I muttered.

"You did no such thing." Optimus said as he walked into the room. I looked up at the Prime and gave him a questioning look. "From what Jon had previously told us today, Primus had plans for the young man, you did not fail him."

"I feel like I did, I let him out of my sight and this happened." I said mournfully.

"He saved me from whatever those things were," Jack spoke up. I looked at the raven-haired boy in surprise. He had tears coming down his face. "They told me that after Airachnid was done having fun with Arcee that she'd let them kill me."

"Why couldn't Jon have just been normal?" I complained.

"None of us are." Jack responded.

I looked at the young human and then back at my dead charge. "I'll fight on for Jon," I said. "I'll avenge him somehow."

"Revenge won't bring him back." Optimus said.

"I know, but it sure as hell will make me feel better." I said standing up. The Dagger of Prima rose from Jon's body and floated towards me. I opened my right palm and the Dagger enlarged itself and landed in my palm. I felt an immense sense of calm wash over me and I closed my eyes. _Good-bye my friend,_ I thought. I opened my eyes and clipped the Dagger to my quiver and looked over at Ratchet and Optimus. "I'll go and contact his mother." I said.

"That would be wise." Optimus said.

I nodded and exited the room. I was going to attend the funeral one way or another, no bot was going to stop me from doing that. I was going to find a way to honor my fallen friend like I had honored the others before him. I made a vow to myself that I would never forget Jon Peterson the kid with incredible baseball talents, secrets, and whatever else there was mixed in there as well. But what better way to honor him than to end this war and bring an end to the Decepticon threat? Somehow my resolve was stronger and I felt more energy than ever. I felt like I had a new purpose; help end this war so that Jon did not die in vain and die for nothing. End this millennia long war so that Jon could rest in a world without having to worry about his grave getting decimated and desecrated by vengeful Decepticons. Oh no, I would not forget Jon Peterson.

**The End…**

**For Now**


End file.
